Israel sets up new department to boost development of AI and autonomy
Israel will continue to develop autonomy for its weapons and platforms as it brings together defence personnel, academia and industry.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has detailed the next phase of its Aircrew Labour In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) programme, with all three contract recipients now announced.
The ALIAS Program focuses on developing a customisable, removable drop-in kit for high automation levels in existing aircrafts and lower on-board crew requirements. It will use advancements in aircraft automation systems and unmanned aerial vehicle technologies to refocus pilot workloads, augment mission performance and improve aircraft safety.
The three contracts for ALIAS have been awarded to Aurora Flight Sciences, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircraft. They are working with the technical team of DARPA, which includes US Navy, Army, Air Force and NASA personnel.
In the first phase of ALIAS, DARPA will focus on the development of minimally invasive interfaces between new automation systems and current aircraft. It will also focus on acquiring knowledge on aircraft operations to support the ALIAS toolkit's rapid adaption across different aircraft. Additionally, this phase will focus on user interfaces for high-level human supervision.
Dan Patt, program manager, DARPA, said: 'Because we want to develop a drop-in system for existing aircraft, we chose performers who could conduct actual ground and flight demonstrations at the start of the programme instead of at the end.'
Patt said that much of the hardware for Phase 1 is ready to test, and that DARPA will work closely with the crew operations community, integrating their feedback along the way.
Israel will continue to develop autonomy for its weapons and platforms as it brings together defence personnel, academia and industry.
Clavister CyberArmour, an integrated defence cybersecurity system, will be used on BAE Systems Hägglunds’ CV90 platform in deployments with a Scandinavian country, as well as in an eastern European nation.
The tactical satellite (TacSat) is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system and will participate in exercises in 2025.
The airborne three-domain, the two ground-based and the ¼ ATR OpenVPX-based cross-domain systems were engineered to provide real-time security across multi-domain operations.
DARPA’s Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme was set up to develop an autonomous tactical network and enable critical data flow in contested environments.
Why space is an essential part of modern military capabilities