Elbit Systems announced that it was awarded a contract valued at approximately US$106 million to supply SIGMA fully automatic self-propelled howitzer gun systems to a country in Asia-Pacific. The contract will be fulfilled over a five-year period. SIGMA is a 155mm/52 calibre self-propelled howitzer capable of automatic loading and laying of the gun system, rapid in-and-out action times and high rate of fire. It offers a protected cabin for a crew of three. Depending on the mission, SIGMA is capable of automatically selecting and loading the required projectile, propellant and fuze and laying the gun to optimally engage targets.
Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, President and CEO of Elbit Systems, said: “The SIGMA system effectively addresses the growing need of armed forces to enhance the effectiveness of their artillery formations and reduce life-cycle costs while improving precision, rapidity, autonomy, survivability and connectivity. The SIGMA system is based on the know-how and experience accumulated by the Company over decades in supplying artillery systems to numerous customers, including the new 155mm fully automatic self-propelled howitzer gun systems for the Israel Defense Forces”.
Elbit demos autonomous swarm capability
Elbit Systems has demonstrated to the RAS Concept Development & Experimentation Program of the Royal Netherlands Army the Company’s Robotic Autonomous Systems (RAS) capabilities for Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions utilising heterogeneous autonomous swarms. Taking place in northern Israel the demonstration deployed swarms comprising of the PROBOT Unmanned Ground Vehicle and two types of Vertical Takeoff and Landing mini Unmanned Aircraft System (VTOL mini-UAS) including the THOR, all powered by the TORCH-X RAS software suite (Command and Control application, Autonomy Kits, Planning tools). During the capability demonstration, different robotic pairings operated as swarms autonomously performing three types of operational missions. The missions included planning, navigating to predefined points, allocating sectors and the performance of various ISR tasks.
“We focused on demonstrating the capacity of autonomous swarms to leverage mature integrative AI and algorithms as field experience with operating MUM-T capabilities shows that those are the key to the effective integration of RAS capabilities”, commented Gil Maoz, vice president of Elbit Systems C4I and Cyber.
Equipped with Autonomy Kits and Electro-Optical payloads, a swarm of three THOR VTOL mini-UASs and PROBOT UGV performed a “point of interest” reconnaissance mission. The TORCH-X RAS Command and Control application used the THOR VTOL mini-UAS swarm to dominate the area of interest and deployed the PROBOT UGV to complete the intelligence picture. Real-time video feeds were transmitted by all four platforms while Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) and designation capabilities enabled effective target acquisition. In a second mission scenario, two VTOL mini-UASs were dispatched to resupply front line forces. Taking-off from different destinations the two platforms navigated to predefined locations conducted accurate landing and autonomously returned to their home bases upon mission completion. The third mission was an airborne deployment of Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) using two THOR VTOL mini-UASs quipped with sensor dispensers. Operating as a swarm the two THORs arrived at pre-defined points accurately off-loading the miniature Lonely Rider UGS enabling data collection from ground sensors designed to enhance the ISR combat picture.
The demonstration highlighted the capability of the TORCH-X RAS powered solution to enable heterogeneous formations of unmanned platforms, of different makers, equipped with both proprietary and third party payloads, to act as a cohesive unit conducting synchronised autonomous multi-domain operations.
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