Manned Unmanned Teaming is an effort by the US Army to integrate unmanned air vehicles in the Army Aviation’s operations. Thanks to that, the helicopter pilots and the rest of the crew will gain a critical tactical advantage. They will be able to locate enemy targets behind obstacles, such as mountains, or even designate them from a safe distance, transmit communication and carry out the rest of the C4ISR tasks effectively.

“Giving Army pilots access to real-time video streams in their cockpits will directly improve their ability to successfully execute missions more safely and efficiently,” said Troy Brunk, vice president and general manager of Airborne Solutions for Rockwell Collins. “In addition, the proven, open systems architecture approach we use allows us to quickly deliver this capability to our other customers in a highly cost-effective manner.”

As part of the program, Rockwell Collins has implemented the necessary MUM-T capabilities through the integration of a third-party Common Data Link transceiver. The effort leveraged the open systems architecture design and interfaces provided by Rockwell Collins’ Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS), allowing seamless integration of video and mission data from unmanned aircraft.

The CAAS integrated avionics solution is based on the principles of open systems and widely adopted industry standards. As new industry standards and technology mature they are evaluated and adopted in close collaboration with the DoD Services.