The U.S. Army has reportedly made significant progress with its Future Tactical Uncrewed Aircraft System, or FTUAS, program.
Two competitors — Griffon Aerospace and Textron Systems — completed the modular open system approach, or MOSA, conformance evaluations in May and later conducted flight demonstrations of their prototype aircraft, the Army announced Tuesday.
The FTUAS are intended to help brigade combat teams by providing reconnaissance and surveillance. The data they collect will enable the BCT commanders to make the right decisions during multi-domain operations.
The MOSA certification was done by replacing the hardware and software of the vendors’ prototype aircraft with the mission computer from a third-party surrogate. This allowed the independent assessor to determine the openness and modularity of the prototype.
During the flight demonstrations, held at the Army Redstone Test Center, the unmanned systems were evaluated based on their vertical takeoff and landing, on-the-move command and control, reduced acoustic signature, system integration, rapid emplacement and flight performance.
The FTUAS program is in accordance with the mission of the Program Executive Office for Aviation, particularly the Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Project Office, of modernizing the Army’s aviation fleet of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.