Airbus Presents C295 FITS Role Diagnosis Operated by Ground Teams

Airbus has successfully completed the test flight for the C295 (tactical transport aircraft), which includes mission diagnosis (COMMOMISS) equipped with its new capability Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS), which allows it to be operated remotely by the crew on the ground.

The process, conducted in southern Spain in April, involved four flights and the use of an Airbus C295 Intelligence Surveillance Recognition (ISR) test environment equipped with a Collins avionics package.

The aircraft performed its standard naval patrol mission in near real time, with sensors controlled by the operator at Airbus' Getafe ground station. The sensor control then successfully passes to the base control station; Different surveillance tasks were performed using the Ka band SATCOM, including Electro-Optical / Infrared (EO / IR) beacon control and radar management.

During the tests, the situational awareness of the ground operator was completed, sharing the same set of tools and applications found on the built-in Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) workstations, transforming the COMMOMISS ground station into an effective additional operator connection.

Among COMMOMISS capabilities, it will provide users with: Additional operator connections in the Mission Support Center on the ground will provide operational flexibility in long and complex missions, share tasks between air and ground tactical crew members;

It will ensure the integration with the C2 network of the operator who contributed to the creation of the Common Operational Picture;

It will enable instant access to all data collected by the built-in sensors for real-time analysis with unlimited resources on the ground as well as during the flight;

It will create the possibility to reduce the number of operators (and therefore their stations) during the flight in permanent (ongoing) surveillance missions.

COMMOMISS will form the future of airborne tactical missions and all these tasks; Compatible system architecture for both manned and unmanned aerial vehicles as well as fixed wing and rotary wing will achieve by allowing human-machine interface (HMI) and operating concept (CONOPS). It will support a seamless integration into the overall systems system by providing operators with global situational awareness and contributing to the creation of the Common Operational Picture (COP) in the context of ISR tasks.

The hardware required to implement this new feature applies to new customers interested in the C295 ISR, but this means that COMMOMISS's capability can be available as a catalog option or a growth potential for any customer.