U.S. Navy Installs World’s First Carrier-Based Drone Control Center Aboard USS George H.W. Bush

The first carrier-based drone control center in the world has been fitted onboard USS George HW Bush or CVN 77.

The air vehicle pilots will handle the Mq 25 Stingray unmanned air refuelers from the UAWC or the Unmanned Air Warfare Center.

The control center will have software and hardware that make up the first fully integrated and functional UMCS needed for an aircraft’s command and control functions.

There are plans to add the UAWC on all the US Navy’s Nimitz and Ford-class nuclear aircraft carriers.

Unmanned Carrier Aviation Program Manager Capt. Daniel Fucito mentioned that this new control center will lay a foundation of how the Navy will control and operate unmanned aircraft and other unmanned equipment including vehicles with the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System.

The UMCS system has MD-5E Ground Control Station, CVN and shore site infrastructure, ancillary equipment, and integration with command, communications, computers, control and intelligence systems, per the Navy.

The MD-5 E is powered by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works Multi Domain Combat System.

The center is a result of many years of hard work and coordination among multiple departments and across several ship availability periods and deployment schedule.

The first at-sea trial of UAWC’s operational network will be held in the first half of 2025. It will be with the help of a simulated GCS onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln or CVN 72.

This would be the first occasion when air vehicle pilots from unmanned carrier-launched multi-role squadron 10 would operate the MD-5 from an aircraft carrier, mentioned Joe Nedeau of the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Program Office.

They would utilise a GCS hardware and software onboard CVN 77 to communicate with a simulated air vehicle in the laboratory in the Pax River.

Reference: the defence post