Northrop Grumman [NOC] on Wednesday announced a new effort to collaborate with autonomous solutions firm EpiSci.
The two companies said the partnership will specifically focus on integrating EpiSci’s TacticalAI software with Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics system architecture “to accelerate the delivery of advanced autonomous solutions.”
“Northrop Grumman is committed to delivering the best solutions for our customers based on their requirements. Our open autonomy architecture is common to our advanced platforms and will utilize EpiSci’s TacticalAI autonomy software for weapons systems requiring its specific mission-relevant capabilities,” Dan Salluce, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems’ director of advanced autonomy, told Defense Daily.
Salluce noted this new effort marks the first-ever collaboration between Northrop Grumman and EpiSci.
EpiSci said on Wednesday its Tactical AI software is hardware agnostic and has already been deployed “on a growing list of systems from swarms of uncrewed aerial and maritime systems to tactical fighter aircraft.”
“We look forward to working with Northrop Grumman as we rapidly integrate our software into their hardware and control systems. Delivering trusted autonomous solutions is critical for our warfighter’s mission success and this collaboration presents us a fantastic opportunity to get our software into their hands more quickly,” Dan Javorsek, EpiSci’s chief technology officer, said in a statement.
RTX [RTX] in December 2022 said its venture capital arm had made a minority investment in the California-based EpiSci (Defense Daily, Dec. 8 2022).
EpiSci at the time said the investment validates the company’s TacticalAI software “as a viable approach for enabling trusted autonomy for the future” and that it will allow it to scale the “technology across multiple battlefield domains.”