Raytheon is displaying here at Farnborough its universal control station (UCS) for UAVs. It is the first time the station is showing at an international venue.
The company claims that the UCS could dramatically reduce the accident rates of unmanned systems, as well as the cost to train operators. In particular, Raytheon wants to replace the ground stations provided by General Atomics for the control of the Predator and Reaper UAVs.
“We believe that we could save the U.S. Air Force $500 million over the next 10 years,” said Mark Bigham, business development manager for Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) business. He bases his calculation on the high loss rates experienced in the Predator/Reaper program. Although the drone’s overall accident rate per flying hour is very good, there has been a disproportionately high loss rate in training and during the takeoff and landing phases. The U.S. Air Force is believed to have written off over half of all the MQ-1/9 series UAVs that it has received. The UK Royal Air Force has already lost one of the three Reapers it began operating last year, and damaged another in a landing accident.
