BAE Systems said Monday the company will provide autonomy and artificial intelligence capabilities for Lockheed Martin
’s [LMT] work on DARPA’s Squad X program, which aims to deploy new tools to improve manned-unmanned teaming on the battlefield.
Under the deal with Lockheed Martin, worth $3.5 million, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs unit will provide its Mission Intelligence for Tactical Systems (MITS) advanced sensor fusion, artificial intelligence, and autonomy for Squad X.
“Autonomy technology – be it in the air, space, sea, or ground domain – is all about making better decisions faster to allow our warfighters to more effectively execute their missions as safely as possible,” Chris Eisenbies, product line director for BAE Systems’ autonomy, controls and estimation group, said in a statement. “We look forward to the prospects of providing this advantage to those in the field.”
The company said its MITS technology provides synthesized situational awareness that “informs human decision making in complex, time-critical combat situations, and directs continuous autonomous robotic tasking,” to include tactical robotic air and ground vehicles.
“MITS is highly automated and directs mobile robots and their sensor payloads while reducing the cognitive load on its partner warfighters. MITS fuses sensor data, constructs and shares battlefield awareness with its human squadmates, and provides tactical electronic and kinetic support to the squad as it maneuvers and engages enemy positions,” the company wrote in a statement.
Lockheed Martin is currently providing prototypes for Squad X, and has previously tested its Augmented Spectral Situational Awareness, and Unaided Localization for Transformative Squads system under the program, which DARPA has said “used autonomous robots with sensor systems to detect enemy locations.”