GA-ASI is now testing the MOSA components on a simulator and plans to start flight testing early next year. Credit: US Army.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) is developing a modular open systems approach (MOSA) for the Gray Eagle Extended Range (GE-ER) uncrewed aircraft system (UAS).

The company is working on the effort along with the US Army.

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MOSA will be incorporated on multi-domain operations (MDO)-capable GE-ER Increment 2. It will cover the complete system, the aircraft and the command and control (C2) software suite.

The implementation will offer a range of new standards for C2, Future Airborne Capability Environment, Open Mission Systems and Universal Armament Interface.

GA-ASI Army Programs vice-president Don Cattell said: “MOSA implementation on GE-ER Increment 2 supports rapid integration of best of breed capabilities.

“We share the army’s vision for MOSA and want to help them create a system that makes interfacing from all platforms and users as easy as possible.”

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The medium-altitude aircraft will benefit from MOSA’s ‘edge processing’ capability to increase its effectiveness. It will provide the US Army and Joint Force with near real-time, threat detection, identification, location and reporting (DILR).

In addition, the use of MOSA will allow quick integration of advanced payloads, communication equipment on the aircraft. Capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can also be added.

Furthermore, it will separate the human-machine interface (HMI) from the software business logic for the on-ground C2 suite and minimise the time related to interfacing.

The army can customise each platform’s HMI and reduce regression testing.

Currently, the company is testing the MOSA components on a simulator and intends to start flight testing next year.

In March this year, GA-ASI and the US Army conducted the first production acceptance test procedure (ATP) flights of a GE-ER UAS.

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