VCS-4586 for the Universal Target Control Station (UTCS)

The Universal Target Control Station (UTCS) was originally developed as a collaboration between Bristol Aerospace (now Meggitt Training Systems Canada) and CDL Systems to control multiple air and sea surface targets from one or multiple ground control station. In use since the mid 1990's, the UTCS has been extensively used to operate the Barracuda and Hammerhead sea-seaface targets as well as the Vindicator and Dornier aerial target drones. In order to remain a “universal” solution, common hardware and software interfaces were used, offering a shared operator interface and analogous communications protocols. The Barracuda, Vindicator and UTCS have been deployed for use in Canada, United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Singapore since 1996.

One of the most substantial upgrades to the UTCS has been the addition of support for the EADS Germany family of jet-powered Direct Targets (DT). This includes the single and twin engine powered DT-35, the double sized DT-25 with IR augmenter, and the near super-sonic DT-55. The UTCS allows EADS operators to operate six or more targets simultaneously using a network of UTCS workstations operating with multiple synchronous uplink transmitters. Target operations of the DT’s have been performed repeatedly at the NATO Missile Firing Installation (NAMFI) in Crete since 2004.

The original UTCS design called for a product which could operate an air vehicle (Vindicator) or a sea vehicle (Barracuda) at the same time. This single operator dual vehicle approach has been a cardinal design philosophy since the projects inception. The UTCS can be configured for dual air vehicle, dual sea vehicle, or one of each type. All configurations use a basic operator interface which includes a scrolling map, mission planner, target control panel and video display/recording.