GA ASI Successfully Tests NCCP for UAS and Marine Corps Ground and Air Forces
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has announced that its Network Centric Communications Pod (NCCP) successfully tested its ability to provide a comprehensive communications data link between UAS and U.S. Marine Corps ground and air forces during an exercise in July that was held at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California. Claudio Pereida, executive vice president of Mission Systems at GA-ASI, released this statement:
“The successful demonstration of NCCP for the Marine Corps clearly shows the versatility and utility of Predator B in extending the communication ranges and mission capabilities of our forces in distributed operations. We are proud to have supported the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit during this historic exercise, marking the first time that a Predator-series aircraft was equipped with NCCP.”
The NCCP, which is a Quick Reaction Capability and is installed on GA ASI’s Predator B Block 5 UAS and operated by their Block 30 Ground Control Station, provided a variety of functions for both systems, including Adaptive Networking Wideband Waveform retransmissions and Tactical Targeting Network Technology availability. It also provided C-band Remote Operational Video Enhanced Receiver Full-motion Video. All of these services were tested during the July demonstrations, and passed adequately.
Other areas tested during the demonstration were data and image transferring from GA-ASI’s Lynx Multi-mode Radar to Camp Pendleton’s Battle Simulation Center. That information was then displayed on GA-ASI’s Claw 3 Integrated Sensor Payload Control and Analysis Software system, as well as GA-ASI’s System for Tactical Archival, Retrieval, and Exploitation (STARE) workstations.
