Anduril Industries on Thursday said its artificial intelligence-based open systems operating platform it is evolving to enable large-scale integration of autonomous systems was successfully demonstrated by an integrated team of four small, fixed-wing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at a recent Army experimental demonstration.
The demonstration included three of Anduril’s ALTIUS-600s and one Textron [TXT] Aerosonde HQ, which can take-off and land vertically, that were integrated with Lattice for Mission Autonomy during the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Exercise (EDGE) at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The company said one soldier used Lattice for Mission Autonomy to do pre-mission planning, operational analysis and command and control of the UASs that had different sensor payloads and mission systems.
The mission involved locating, identifying and destroying a surface-to-air missile site in support of helicopter assault operations. Anduril said its software platform initially controlled an ALTIUS-600, which was set up as an aerial decoy for enemy air defenses, and an Aerosonde equipped with
CACI International’s [CACI] Spectral Sieve electronic warfare/intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payload for a wide-area search to geolocate surface-to-air-missile (SAM) radars.
Once the radar signals were detected, Lattice for Mission Autonomy directed a “hunter-killer pair” of ALTIUS-600s, one with an ISR payload and the other configured as a “loitering munition” to search for additional signals and precise targeting data,” Anduril said. After the SAM site was detected, the soldier using the software platform designated the target and authorized the strike with the suicide drone while the “software automatically re-tasked the ALTIUS ISR to conduct a battle damage assessment.”
Once the area was deemed safe, a manned UH-60 helicopter was able to approach its landing zone. Later, the helicopter pilot used an Android Tactical Assault Kit to take tactical control of the ISR UAS for “ad hoc tasking in the objective area,” Anduril said.
“Anduril and Textron Systems went from kickoff to successful EDGE23 demonstration in only 15 weeks, seamlessly molding hardware and software by integrating multiple Anduril and third-party sensors, platforms, networks and weapons systems across multiple teams of crewed and uncrewed systems operating in multiple domains,” Anduril said in a blog post. “This allowed for the rapid closure of multiple kill chains enabled by mission autonomy and sensor fusion.”
Anduril in early May announced it is scaling its Lattice OS platform to Lattice for Mission Autonomy to enable large-scale integration and use of autonomous systems under human supervision across the mission cycle. The evolving software platform is designed to help the Department of Defense move beyond manpower-heavy, expensive and difficult-to-replace weapon systems and platforms to less manpower-intensive warfighting models that rely on widespread use of low-cost robotic platforms that can be replace more quickly and at lower cost and are easier to modernize.
The Lattice for Mission Autonomy platform can be applied to forthcoming Army programs such as the future tactical UAS, scalable control interrace, and launched effects, Anduril said.
At EDGE23, more than 120 technologies were demonstrated with the aim to advance capabilities for information sharing and operating in the lower tier of the air domain.