| | Tactical Control System (TCS) |
| | Primary Purpose | TCS is a Command and Control (C2) system for the |
| | family of the Air Force's Medium Altitude |
| | Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to include |
| | Predator UAVs, the Army Tactical Unmanned Aerial |
| | Vehicles (TUAV) and the Navy and Marine Corps |
| | Vertical Take- Off and Landing TUAV (VTUAV). |
| | Sub-Functions | TCS Provides the tactical commander with |
| | information superiority, contributing to the |
| | overall protection of forces and precision |
| | engagement of the enemy. |
| | Equipment Requirements | TCS operates on current service hardware i.e., |
| | Sun Sparc Servers (Air Force)/common hardware and |
| | software-II, Sun Sparc 20s (Army and Marine |
| | Corps) and the Tactical Control Navy (TAC-N). |
| | The system relies on five sub systems: A Line Of |
| | Sight (LOS) antenna assembly, an integrated data |
| | terminal, a data link module, a Personal |
| | Computer (PC) and a synthetic aperture radar sub |
| | system workstation. |
| | Connectivity Requirements | UAV TCS software via current Sun/SPARC (Air |
| | Force), CHS-II/SPARC-20 (Army/Marine Corps) and |
| | TAC-N (Navy) service hardware. |
| | Crypto Requirements | Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), secure Ultra |
| | High Frequency (UHF), Very High Frequency (VHF) |
| | and High Frequency (HF) radios for digital |
| | message transmission. |
| | Normal Locations | The Air Force will incorporate selected |
| | components of the TCS software suite into the |
| | existing Predator UAV ground stations. The Army |
| | and Marine Corps will use TCS as an integral part |
| | of the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled |
| | Vehicle (HMMWV) based ground station. The Navy |
| | will use TCS for UAV operations from ships and |
| | temporary shore sites. |
| | Information Managed | TCS provides the war fighter with a scalable, |
| | interoperable and modular C2 capability to |
| | operate existing UAVs on existing computer |
| | systems and future Command Control Computers |
| | Communications and Information (C4I) processing |
| | systems. |
| | Products Created | TCS Scalability permits the system to manage the |
| | five discrete levels of TCS to UAV interaction |
| | ranging from receipt and transmission of |
| | secondary imagery and data, to full control and |
| | operation of a UAV including takeoff and landing. |
| | Lead Service/Contractor | Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) and Raytheon |
| | Corporation. |
| | Current Fielding Status | Full rate production second quarter of fiscal |
| | year 2000 (2Q FY 00). |
| | Known Problems | UAV systems operate using proprietary aerial |
| | vehicle C3I interface software and some unique |
| | hardware. Current UAV systems require separate |
| | unique interfaces for interoperability with |
| | existing C3I systems. |
| | DIICOE Compliance Rating | Four. |
| Point of Contact | http://www.nswc.navy.mil/tcs/ |
| Updated by | Captain Barton J. Rice, USA, CCSC-01 |
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