Airbus Defence & Space has demonstrated the ability for a formation of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collaboratively use a company-developed, AI-based automatic target recognition system.
Conducted in partnership with UAV manufacturer Primoco from Pisek-Krasovice airport in the Czech Republic using a pair of Primoco One 150 tactical vehicles, the work “demonstrated how its teaming intelligence software can be used to autonomously and dynamically manage a group of UAVs in real time”, it says.
Flying in an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance scenario, the UAVs were directed to a predetermined area by operators in a ground station, with each assigned a set search area.
After simultaneously detecting a simulated hostile air defence system, the unmanned aircraft sent location data to the ground station.
“In a second scenario, one UAV was responsible for monitoring the target area and detecting threats, while the other loitered in the background on standby,” Airbus’s defence unit says.
“As soon as the first UAV detected an enemy threat, it used the teaming software to task the second UAV to identify the enemy air defence system and report it to the operators,” it adds.
In an operational setting, “the threat could have been neutralised by a pilot in a fighter jet using targeting data from the UAVs”, the company notes.
The partner companies also “successfully tested the integration of [other] third-party applications” during the recent demonstration.
Following the test success, Airbus says it is working “to further mature its teaming intelligence software as a product that can be installed on any fixed-wing, rotary-wing, crewed or uncrewed aircraft”.
“Applying manned-unmanned teaming will help to increase the number of sensors and effectors within a future combat air system,” it notes.
