Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) is a DARPA program that seeks to demonstrate dramatic improvements in close air support (CAS) capabilities by developing a system to allow continuous CAS availability and lethality to Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs). Overview The program will give JTACs the ability to visualize, select, and employ munitions at the time of their choosing from optionally manned or unmanned aerial attack platforms. PCAS was to demonstrate using an A-10 Thunderbolt II modified for optionally manned operation, however the program did not seek to remove pilots from the cockpit of A-10s or other manned military aircraft. Technologies developed under the program were to transition to both current manned aircraft and the MQ-X next-generation unmanned aircraft. With the cancellation of the MQ-X program, the PCAS program dropped the idea of using an optionally manned A-10, and refocused the effort to allow the JTAC controller to interface with "smart rail" electronics on a manned A-10. Background and design Currently pilots, forward air controllers, and JTACs must focus on one target at a time and rely on voice directions and paper maps to call in air support. This can take up to one hour to be arranged and have an aircraft arrive on station, which allows a target to relocate or attack first. PCAS is to digitally link aircraft with ground controllers to share real-time situational awareness, identify multiple targets simultaneously, jointly select the best precision-guided weapons for the situation, and reduce engagement time to as little as six minutes. Pilots and JTACs will have digital messaging capabilities networked through software programmable radio, which wirelessly transmits IP packets of voice, video, and data. By using Android tablets on the ground and in an aircraft's cockpit they can both view and exchange targeting information using icons, digital maps, and display screens; a JTAC can view a pilot's targeting pod picture in the air and permits a pilot to view target-grid coordinates and other displays from a JTAC's tablet on the ground. Using smart launcher electronics, consisting of a GPS/INS unit, weapons and engagement management systems, high-speed data transfer systems, software and radios, and an Ethernet switch, it integrates software programmable radio with a processor and tablet in the cockpit. Autonomous decision aids also use algorithms to recommend which weapon might be best suited to attack a given target. The first PCAS phase involved identifying relevant technologies, demonstrating concepts, and developing target-identification