, a Textron Inc. company, and Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, completed a successful demonstration of a Textron Systems Aerosonde Hybrid Quad (HQ) UAS operated with multiple payloads onboard to simulate and geolocate threat emitters.
During the demonstration, an operator conducted missions using Anduril’s Lattice for Mission Autonomy to command and control multiple first and third-party UAS with mixed sensor payloads and capabilities including one Textron Systems’ Aerosonde HQ UAS and three variants of from Anduril’s ALTIUS-600 Launched Effects family loitering munitions to demonstrate an autonomous Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) mission in support of an Army Aviation Air Assault mission. Textron Systems and Anduril integrated multiple sensors, platforms and networks across teams of manned and unmanned systems, molding together hardware and software across domains.
The Aerosonde HQ has vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability and performs as a modular workhorse for land and sea-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The aircraft has mission-tailorable agility that addresses the need for increased capability, lethality and survivability. Aerosonde has been expanding into the maritime domain, providing real-time situational awareness for surface combatants internationally.
“Building off the technology that we demonstrated last year at the U.S. Army’s Cyber Quest and Project Convergence exercises, this is the latest exercise to show our cross-domain interoperability and how easily our systems can integrate with others to meet our user’s requirements,” said Wayne Prender, Senior Vice President of Air Systems. “This exercise with Anduril allowed us to showcase how our capabilities are directly applicable to next-generation Army programs like FTUAS, SCI and Launched Effects.”
Anduril’s Lattice for Mission Autonomy
is a hardware-agnostic end-to-end software platform that enables teams of robotic assets to work together under human supervision to dynamically perform complex missions in any domain. Lattice for Mission Autonomy performs the core functions that are essential for mission planning and execution—including autonomous piloting, the ability to sense and make sense of the battlespace, identification of threats and objects of interest, managing signature and communications to enhance survivability, orchestrating multi-asset maneuvers, and synchronizing the delivery of effects. The software platform is built with an open and extensible architecture enabling the integration and interoperability of third-party hardware and software, like the Aerosonde HQ UAS.
“When you view the pace of technology development through a software lens, you approach the problem differently,” said Andrew Carter of Anduril. “Modern software platforms can allow you to iterate much faster and focus on bringing an ecosystem of technologies, behaviors, and networks together to accomplish a mission outcome. Anduril and Textron Systems were able to integrate, test, and execute in 15 weeks, highlighting the modular open systems architecture of Lattice for Mission Autonomy and the Textron Systems Aerosonde HQ platform.”
Source: Press Release