Darpa selects Lockheed Martin for airborne AI Tools contract

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awards Lockheed Martin a $4.6 million contract to develop AI tools for “dynamic, airborne missions” potentially involving unmanned combat planes.

The award is part of Darpa’s Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) programme. Specifically, the award is to provide advanced Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and AI agents for live, multi-ship, beyond visual range (BVR) missions, says Lockheed Martin.

Airborne AI

During an 18-month period of performance, Lockheed Martin will apply AI and Machine Learning techniques to create models of aircraft, sensors, electronic warfare and weapons. This will be “within dynamic and operationally representative environments”, according to the company.

“In complex airborne missions, our customers need access to advanced technologies that connect critical systems quickly across all domains,” said Gaylia Campbell, vp of Engineering and Technology for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

“The DARPA AIR program will use state-of-the-art scientific ML technology and Lockheed Martin’s ARISE infrastructure (pictured) to deliver unprecedented amounts of data that service members can use to make faster and more informed decisions. This will provide significant cost savings opportunities for the Department of Defense and serve as a foundation for future AI defense solutions, ensuring the U.S. and its allies maintain their competitive advantage no matter the circumstances.”

AIR

According to the defence agency, the AIR programme will improve the speed and predictive performance of existing government-supplied models to better match how the Department of Defense’s systems perform in the real world.

“The Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) program will develop dominant tactical autonomy for multi-ship, beyond visual range (BVR) air combat missions. Autonomy solutions will initially be developed and demonstrated on manned F-16 testbeds and then transferred to an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). The outcome of this program will be a dominant AI air combat capability compatible with existing sensors, electronic warfare, and weapons within dynamic and operationally representative environments.”

As mentioned, the AIR models will expand on the within-visual-range (WVR) autonomous capabilities previously developed under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) programme for manned F-16s.