New UAV control system may cut Predator losses | Aviation International News

New UAV control system may cut Predator losses

By the time the U.S.

By Chris Pocock • Defense Correspondent

June 17, 2007

By the time the U.S. Air Force took delivery of its 120th Predator unmanned air vehicle, nearly half of them (56) had been destroyed–some to enemy fire, but most to accidents. No pilots were harmed in the making of this statistic, of course. But at $4 million per Predator, that’s $224 million, a cost that cannot be ignored. And other UAVs have had similar problems.

Raytheon believes that its newly designed universal control system (UCS) will dramatically reduce the loss rates of unmanned systems. The company’s Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) business took note of the substantial research that blames human factors for many UAV accidents. Raytheon then hired two former Predator operators, put them together with its own systems engineers and came up with a “cockpit” that revolutionizes operator awareness and efficiency, according to the company.

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