WASHINGTON — L3Harris Technologies, the 10th largest defense contractor by revenue, and BigBear.ai, an artificial intelligence company, are partnering on products that support autonomous surface ships, a key component of the U.S. Navy’s future strategy. increase.
As part of a cooperation agreement announced on May 9, BigBear.ai will provide computer vision, predictive analytics and related applications to L3Harris to improve manned and unmanned teaming and foreign vessel identification and classification on water. To do.
This capability will be combined with the existing L3Harris ASView system developed for autonomous and remote control of unmanned vehicles. According to the company, ASView has been in continuous development since his 2008 and has been installed on more than 100 newbuildings and conversions.
BigBear.ai CEO Mandy Long said in a statement: “Autonomous systems will play an increasingly important role as the battlefield evolves. We look forward to the endless possibilities that lie ahead.”
Related
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/GTEUDWH56JAEPE3NVL3MWEG3FQ.jpg)
The Navy and Marine Corps are making big bets on unmanned technology in the air, underwater and below the surface, broadening their horizons and staying engaged for longer, including in areas deemed too dangerous or undermanned. .
Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday said unmanned platforms will be deployed with carrier strike groups and amphibious readiness groups in the next four to five years. brig. Marine Corps Systems Command Adm. David Walsh said last month that the machine will disrupt the way people, weapons and goods move across the battlefield.
Both companies have worked with the Navy’s Task Force 59, a group formed to rapidly integrate AI and unmanned systems into naval operations.
A task force late last year put together Digital Horizon, a three-week experiment in Bahrain. The event included 15 so-called advanced systems, 10 of which were operating in the Middle East for the first time.
Colin Demarest is a reporter for C4ISRNET covering military networks, cyber and IT. Colin previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Agency (that is, decontamination and nuclear weapons development during the Cold War) in a South Carolina daily. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.
