Smiths Aerospace has been awarded a number of contracts by Northrop Grumman to develop systems for the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program. Smiths will start to deliver its vehicle management computers (VMCs) to Northrop Grumman by the end of this year. VMCs are backbone of onboard computers, networks and systems interfaces as they host all of the avionics, flight control and utilities functions. Smiths sees itself as a Tier 1 supplier for systems to the unmanned aerial vehicle market.
