Manned/Unmanned Common Architecture Program (MCAP)

The transformation of U.S. military forces will provide the capability to meet the security challenges of the 21st century. Critical elements of that transformation are manned and unmanned rotorcraft providing attack, reconnaissance and transportation capabilities for the Army. The Future Combat System requirements to deploy a brigade anywhere within the world within 96 hours, a division, within 120 hours and five divisions within a month mandate a force with a large tooth to tail ratio. A common architecture on the Army platforms will reduce the logistics needed to support the deployed forces. MCAP follows on the successes of the Rotorcraft Open System Avionics program (ROSA). That program, using system engineering methods, identified numerous areas where a common architecture would benefit the Army. This paper will describe those results. In conclusion the MCAP approach to implementing selected aspects of the ROSA architectural design, leading to a flight demonstration, will be discussed.