Northrop Grumman adds AI to air defence controller for improved CUAS capability
FAAD simultaneously integrates short range air defence, counter-rocket artillery and mortar and CUAS missions. (Photo: Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman’s Forward Area Air Defence (FAAD) Advanced Battle Manager (ABM) system continuously monitors the battlespace, replans engagements as necessary and supports multiple weapon types.
Northrop Grumman has completed successful trials of its FAAD ABM system integrated with improved artificial intelligence (AI) software to provide improved CUAS capability.
Northrop Grumman said the trials took place at the Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, from March to August this year. The demonstration of real-time weapon-target pairings take place across disparate kinetic and non-kinetic weapons by leveraging AI and years of live fire data.
The AI feature has been designed to streamline decision-making to support the defeat of UAS swarms with a single button click on a mobile tablet.
Kenn Todorov, VP and general manager – global battle management and readiness at Northrop Grumman, said the improvements would “create a streamlined and intuitive engagement plan”.
“As threats evolve, the need for operations to become simple and clear during high-stress multi-target engagements has increased [and this improvement] ensures the combat-proven FAAD system remains at the forefront of CUAS technology,” he noted.
FAAD was originally designed for an air defence role but has expanded to include improved functionality and in 2022 was demonstrated for capability. During this demonstration FAAD C2 was integrated with eight sensors and six effectors to simultaneously defend against coordinated rocket, artillery, mortar and UAS attacks.
In 2021, Northrop Grumman was contracted to provide systems to Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia under a US$14.3 million deal from the US Army in support of US European Command (EUCOM).
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