BAE Systems will develop software for semi-autonomous multi-domain mission planning under a new contract received from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The proposed software technology is expected to provide military operators with the capability to make use of battlespace resources from across space, land, air and sea domains.
BAE Systems’ FAST Labs research and development unit will work with Carnegie Mellon University to develop the autonomy software known as multi-domain adaptive request service (Mars).
The contract was awarded under DARPA’s Adapting Cross-Domain Kill-Webs (ACK) programme.
Military operators currently rely on manual systems to coordinate the use of resources such as weapons, communications, and sensors across domains.
ACK is aimed at helping operators quickly identify the best options for tasking and retasking assets.
The programme will assist in quick decision-making and allow users to adapt to dynamic situations using software technology.
BAE Systems Autonomy, Controls, and Estimation group product line director Chris Eisenbies said: “Multi-domain mission planning is complex because it involves a tremendous amount of distributed variables such as domains, systems, resources, and manned and unmanned platforms.
“Our hope is that MARS will provide warfighters with the ability to automatically leverage the resources they need and quickly determine the most effective way to accomplish their mission no matter what type of battlespace they are operating in.”
In a statement, BAE Systems said: “MARS aims to help operators make informed decisions by automatically identifying available capabilities across domains, and then rapidly assessing the costs and benefits to use those capabilities when adjusting mission tasks.”
The software also provides operators with a visual interface to assess available asset options and choose the best course of action.
