Tablet-Driven CAS Test Successful

The Marine Corps and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) successfully tested a prototype system that would allow ground forces to use specially programmed android tablet devices to coordinate close-air support activities with aircraft more efficiently and safely. During the March 27 test of the Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program at a range in the southwestern U.S., participants used the system to identify a target on the ground and communicate its location to an MV-22 Osprey aircraft. The plane, in turn, confirmed the shot and executed the order to fire. The round – a non-explosive version of the tube-launched precision-guided Griffin missile – struck its target. “On its firs try, the full PCAS prototype system showed we could use a modular … approach to adapt an aircraft to provide close air support, and deliver that capability via real-time coordination with ground forces,” said Dan Pratt, DARPA’s program manager for the project.