Mayors share keys to their cities, but Navy Admiral Jack Chenevey gave a special key to the Navy's Tactical Control System (TCS) to Commodore Derek Anthony, Head of the British Naval Staff, Washington Embassy, during ceremonies today. Chenevey, Program Executive Officer for Cruise Missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (PEO (CU)), shared this important asset with the United Kingdom under a foreign military sales agreement at one of the largest international unmanned vehicle conferences in the world, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland. The United Kingdom now joins Canada in its purchase of TCS.

With the direction of PEO (CU), TCS is being developed as the ground control station architecture for the family of tactical UAVs. TCS will provide command and control of tactical UAVs and their payloads, as well as data dissemination to designated C4I systems. TCS offers the first capability to operate different types of UAVs and payloads from a single ground station. Prior to this initiative, each UAV system has had it's own unique operator control system which resulted in multiple, non-interoperable ground stations with little or no C4I system connectivity.

Under the auspices of NATO's Naval Armament Group, this common ground station architecture has been developed and validated for use by NATO UAV forces.

The key presented at the event secures the hard drive in the TCS processor. "TCS is well on its way to becoming the tactical UAV ground control station architecture standard in the U.S.," said Chenevey, "and we are happy to see our NATO partners taking a major role in this endeavor."

To learn more about the Program Executive Office, Cruise Missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, log on to our website at www.peocu.js.mil.

For further information contact:

Cathy Partusch, Public Affairs Officer, PEO (CU)
Voice: (301) 757-6316 Pager: (888) 534-6628
Email: [email protected]

Sandy Schroeder, Deputy Public Affairs Officer, PEO (CU)
Voice: (301) 757-5289
Email: [email protected]

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