AV Unveils New AI Capability And Autonomy Kit For Unmanned Systems – April 23

AV Unveils New AI Capability And Autonomy Kit For Unmanned Systems – April 23

ARLINGTON, Va., April 23, 2024 – AeroVironment (AV) has introduced its Autonomy Retrofit Kit (ARK) and AVACORE software demonstrating the company’s commitment to advancing autonomy and machine learning capabilities to increase effectiveness of autonomous systems and reduce operator burdens. ARK and AVACORE bring AV’s accelerated autonomy to fielded assets such as Puma 3 AE and Puma LE, in addition to future autonomous systems.

ARK is a quick-connect payload introducing a new suite of intelligent mission capabilities for Group 1+ unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Providing edge computing for mission-critical applications, ARK enables operators to task a single or multi-vehicle team with mission objectives for fully autonomous execution while operating in communications-contested environments. ARK also intelligently integrates with distributed groups of dismounted units in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) using the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK).

AVACORE is AV’s autonomy software providing an open framework for unmanned systems. It features a modular set of interfaces such as autopilots, radios and sensors, and supports rapid integration with new platforms and applications. ARK also comes preinstalled with SPOTR-Edge, AV’s computer vision software, for onboard detection, classification, localization, and tracking of operationally relevant objects including people, vehicles, aircraft, and maritime vessels, day or night.

“ARK and AVACORE provide enhanced capabilities and critical advantages to warfighters on complex battlefields,” said AV’s Senior Vice President of MacCready Works, Jeff Rodrian. “This payload combines AV’s unparalleled autonomy and field-proven computer vision SPOTR-Edge to accelerate awareness and mission success.”

Through the combination of autonomy and computer vision, ARK and AVACORE allow operators to select a wide variety of single or multi-agent capabilities including multi-region search, track and follow and more. The introduction of these systems builds upon AV’s proven and trusted family of autonomous systems, bringing a scalable, adaptable AI toolset to fielded and new assets for safer, smarter mission capabilities.

“AVACORE features an intuitive behavior tree approach allowing flexibility for rapid development and adoption of new autonomous missions,” continued Rodrian. “This results in smarter systems with reduced cognitive load for warfighters.”

The post AV Unveils New AI Capability And Autonomy Kit For Unmanned Systems – April 23 appeared first on Avionics International.

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General Atomics Awards Hughes Contract To Produce Modems For MQ-1C Gray Eagles – April 9

Hughes Network Systems this week said it has received a production contract from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to provide ruggedized modems for the MQ-1 Gray Eagle 25M unmanned aircraft system, providing warfighters with more options to operate the aircraft using satellite communications.

The value of the award was not disclosed. Production will likely entail between 100 and 200 modems, although final numbers will depend on retrofits, Rick Lober, vice president and general manager for Defense and Intelligence Systems, told Defense Daily on Monday.

Hughes, a business of EchoStar, will supply its HM400T modem, which operates on both the higher throughput Ka-band, which can operate over the Defense Department’s Wideband Global Satellite, and the lower frequency Ku-band, which operates on commercial satellites.

The current modems on the Gray Eagles are supplied by L3Harris Technologies and operate in the Ku-band. L3Harris will be doing antenna modifications for the Gray Eagles.

The MQ-1C is used for strike, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

The HM400T in the future may allow operators to use communications satellites in medium Earth orbit, Lober said. Currently, satellites operating in geosynchronous orbits connect ground operators with Gray Eagles. The advanced modem also integrates with DoD’s standard Enhanced Bandwidth Efficient Modulation waveform, which provides more interoperability with ground stations, and transmission security features, Hughes said.

Lober said that the new modem will also give operators faster acquisition times if contact is lost between the satellite and aircraft to a steep banking maneuver.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post General Atomics Awards Hughes Contract To Produce Modems For MQ-1C Gray Eagles – April 9 appeared first on Avionics International.

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After Boeing Delivered First Test MQ-25, Navy Eyes First Flight In Spring 2025 – April 8

After Boeing delivered the first MQ-25 Stingray to the Navy in February for testing, a lead official said Monday the service is on schedule for the first flight test with that platform in spring 2025.

Rear Adm. Stephen Tedford, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, also confirmed the Navy remains on track to achieve initial operational capability with the future carrier-based unmanned tanker by the end of fiscal year 2026.

“We now have our first fully-built static test article from Boeing, St. Louis. It is actually in the static test fixture now there in St. Louis,” Tedford said during remarks at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space Symposium in National Harbor, Md.

The MQ-25 Stingray aims to replace F/A-18E/F Super Hornets currently designated in refueling roles, so more of those aircraft will be freed up for combat use.

“I always am surprised and bring this up at every opportunity, most people don’t realize just how big an MQ-25 actually is. MQ-25 is the length of an F-18 with the wingspan of an E-2. It is not a small UAV. This is a 48,000-pound gross weight class UAV designed specifically for carrier operations…with a design point of 15,000 pounds of fuel give at 500 nautical miles,” Tedford said. “This is our first step to the air wing of the future, as MQ-25 will do carrier-based, unmanned operations, so we can take the burden of tanking and doing in-flight refueling off of the Hornet and make those F-18s back to being tactical shooters. That’s what MQ-25 is all about.”

Tedford said the flight test with the first MQ-25 test article will take place at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. 

Boeing said on Feb. 21 it had delivered the first MQ-25 to the Navy for testing.

“The unmanned carrier-based refueler will now undergo a rigorous airframe integrity evaluation,” Boeing wrote in a social media post. “Once operational, MQ-25 will extend the range and capability of the U.S. Navy’s air wing.”

Boeing conducted the first flight test with its own MQ-25 test asset in September 2019.

The Navy on March 29 awarded Boeing a $657 million contract modification for production and delivery of two more system demonstration test aircraft (SDTA). 

The new contract modification also includes definitizing “obsolescence phase two for non-recurring engineering to address product baseline obsolescence to support low-rate initial production for the MQ-25 Stingray program.”

A DoD Office of the Inspector General report from last year said the Navy was pushing back the MQ-25 schedule due to production maturity issues and to conduct enough testing before moving on to more production.

A low-rate initial production contract for MQ-25 is likely to be awarded in the summer of 2025 based on the Navy’s current program schedule.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post After Boeing Delivered First Test MQ-25, Navy Eyes First Flight In Spring 2025 – April 8 appeared first on Avionics International.

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Lockheed, Intel’s Altera Collaborating On Microelectronics Project For MH-60R Defense System Upgrade

Lockheed Martin said Monday its working with Intel and its Altera semiconductor manufacturing firm to develop an open architecture, low size weight and power upgrade that increases the capability of the electronic defense system on the Navy’s MH-60R helicopters. 

Kevin Mahoney, Lockheed Martin’s director of airborne electronic warfare, told reporters the project is in support of the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s (OUSD R&E) Stimulating Transition for Advanced Microelectronics Packaging (STAMP) program, with an aim to demonstrate a specific use case for upgrading capabilities using domestically-produced microelectronics.

“Secure, dependable access to microelectronics is a national security imperative. Our customers’ missions depend on advanced semiconductor technology. The 21st century technology we need to maintain our security going forward depends on a steady and secure supply of microelectronics. This strategic collaboration will help reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources for microelectronics,” Mahoney said during a briefing on the new effort.

Under a $7.7 million, 18-month Other Transaction Authority agreement, Mahoney said Lockheed Martin will take the Intel and Altera-developed Multi-Chip Package (MCP2), put it into a Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA)-aligned 3U module and integrate it as a digital upgrade for the MH-60R’s AN/ALQ-210 Electronic Support Measure (ESM) system. 

“Utilizing Altera’s Multi-Chip Package, which features the latest in semiconductor technology, our project seeks to revolutionize the efficiency and effectiveness of defense systems for expected use on MH-60R helicopters. This technology promises a leap in capabilities to ensure superior performance on the modern battlespace,” Mahoney said. “That SOSA alignment that we’re doing really allows us to make this system more open, make it more easily upgradeable in the future for both hardware and software updates and eases integration into the host platform.”

John Sotir, senior director of Altera’s military aerospace and government business unit’s acceleration division, told reporters the company’s MCP2 microelectronics solution incorporates “the most advanced data converters into one package.”

“That gives you higher performance for new mission capabilities in a constrained SWaP-C environment,” Sotir said.

Mahoney said this project in support of the STAMP effort aligns the CHIPS and Science Act’s, bolstering domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity and the Pentagon’s efforts to “bridge the valley of death” in implementing new microelectronics capabilities. 

“What STAMP is focused on is helping to bridge that valley of death, [to] take the technology development and bring it further into an actual product that can be used by our armed forces,” Mahoney said. “There is not a guaranteed contract application and implementation of this at the end of STAMP. But what STAMP does is take that chip-level investment [and] turns it into a usable product so it basically shortens the putt into actual implementation onto a platform.”

Mahoney noted the technology being developed through this STAMP project has “very wide applications” beyond use on MH-60Rs, adding Lockheed Martin has its own parallel effort “investing to look at those other platforms and other opportunities where this can be applicable.”

“This versatility ensures our defense systems remain adaptable and capable of addressing emerging threats,” Mahoney said. “Everything we’re doing is applicable to all onboard ESM systems across the services. So we’ll be looking to take this and apply it to every rotary or fixed-wing platform that we currently have systems on and really maximizing this investment from OUSD [R&E], Intel and Lockheed Martin.”

Lockheed Martin is planning demonstrations for late 2024 to showcase how the technology with Altera’s chip capability can work with additional platforms, according to Mahoney.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post Lockheed, Intel’s Altera Collaborating On Microelectronics Project For MH-60R Defense System Upgrade appeared first on Avionics International.

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Valkyrie Unmanned Combat Aircraft Demonstrates Electronic Attack With F-35s – April 2

An XQ-58A Valkyrie autonomous unmanned combat aircraft equipped with an electronic attack payload successfully demonstrated suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) capabilities with two F-35 fighters in a recent live flight test event at Eglin AFB, Fla., Kratos Defense & Security Solutions said on Tuesday.

The test of Kratos’s low-cost Valkyrie completes the first phase of the Marine Corps’ Penetrating Affordable Autonomous Collaborative Killer-Portfolio (PAACK-P) program, part of an effort to inform requirements for the unmanned combat aircraft to support the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Unmanned Aerial System Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) for use in the SEAD role.

Kratos received a $22.9 million phase two contract modification in December 2023 to conduct additional engineering and flight tests of the Valkyrie in support of the PAACK-P program.

“MUX TACAIR promises to increase the lethality and survivability of our current crewed platforms,” Lt. Col. Bradley Buick, Marine Corps Aviation Cunningham Group Capabilities, Research, and Integration officer, said in a statement. “These platforms are the future of air warfare.”

The Marine Corps last October conducted the first flight test of the Valkyrie as part of PAACK-P, which is aimed at having the unmanned aircraft serve as a cooperative combatant.

“We’re very excited about the mission capability demonstrated during the flight and the incredible effectiveness per cost that this enables, not to mention the elimination of risk to a human pilot, and elimination of risk to expensive manned platforms,” Steve Fendley, president of Kratos’s Unmanned Systems Division, said in a statement. He also said the test included electronic warfare systems supplied by Northrop Grumman.

Kratos said all flight-test objectives were successfully met. Valkyrie can operate as a loyal wingman with manned fighters, operate in swarms, and individually.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post Valkyrie Unmanned Combat Aircraft Demonstrates Electronic Attack With F-35s – April 2 appeared first on Avionics International.

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