FATE CONTROL STATION MISSION PLANNING & CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
Capacity To Host Multiple Mission Planners
Provide Mission Planner Support
Provide Inflight Route Planning Status
Provide for Inflight Navigation Mode Selection
Provide for Inflight Weapon Delivery Mode Selection
Provide for Inflight Weapon Selection
E-Systems Planning Display
Notes:
MISSION PLANNING AND CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
Mission Planning will definitely be done on the control station. An idea gleaned from the CFM program is to carry several mission planners in the C/S. The reason is that some route planners are optimized for intervisibility and terrain masking, some avoid threats by routing around them, others are designed to optimize fuel use. Since there are already many kinds of route planners, use them when they offer what is desired for any particular portion or leg of a mission. The C/S will need to provide/host the data bases, controls and display formats necessary to plan a mission. It will also have ties to external sources such as AFMSS and DTED data bases. The vehicle will eventually host inflight route planners, and when this occurs, the new plan will be sent to the operator for situation awareness or approval. The C/S will need to provide controls and display formats for this. Among the vehicle functions the operator will need to control is the navigation system. INS alignment, fixtaking, GPS initialization and Terrain Referenced Navigation Management are some of these. Tactical aircraft have a menu of options for weapon delivery profiles , such as overfly, side toss, max range toss, or low altitude drogue deliveries. The selection of a weapon, pairing of the weapon with a delivery mode or profile and targeting are all functions that need controls and displays for the operator. These things, in particular, are not on any UAV control stations today.