Boeing UAV Achieves NATO Compliance

Boeing and its team gained compliance with NATO’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) interoperability standard. The standard, also known as Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4586, establishes specifications for a common ground station system for UAVs used by NATO military forces, Boeing said. Compliance allows NATO member nations to jointly support military operations using their own UAVs and ground control station equipment. This increases interoperability and allows data and information processed by member nation UAVs to be shared real-time through a common ground interface, Boeing said. Boeing and UAV developer Insitu, Bingen, Wash., flew a three-hour simulated mission to demonstrate various functions. The system tested included a ScanEagle Vehicle Specific Module and an Insitu Multiple UAV Software Environment ground station with an "Army One" ground control station Common UAV Control Software package developed by CDL Systems Ltd. STANAG compliance will enable existing and future deployed ScanEagles to be utilized by current STANAG ground control stations. The ScanEagle team soon will begin the next test phase using multiple ScanEagles and ground control stations to validate various autonomous functions. More