Airbus teams with Primoco UAV on uncrewed aircraft

In a recent test flight campaign, Airbus demonstrated how its teaming intelligence software can be used to autonomously and dynamically manage a group of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in real time. Thanks to this, operators on the ground or pilots in crewed aircraft can operate multiple UAVs simultaneously, relieving them from tedious tasks such as surveillance and inspection over vast areas and allowing them to focus on mission objectives. Airbus conducted the demonstration at the Czech airport of Písek-Krašovice together with Primoco, a leading manufacturer of medium-sized UAVs. In one scenario, operators at the Airbus ground station sent two Primoco One 150 UAVs to a predetermined target area. Airbus’ teaming intelligence software assigned each of the UAVs its own surveillance area. Using AI-based automatic target recognition (ATR) software by Airbus, both aircraft were able to detect threats simultaneously. One of the uncrewed aircraft then localised a threat and sent the geodata of the opposing air defense system along with an alert to the ground station. In a second scenario, each of the uncrewed aircraft were given separate tasks. One UAV was responsible for monitoring the target area and detecting threats with Airbus’ AI-based ATR. The other loitered in the background on standby. As soon as the first UAV detected an enemy threat, it used the teaming software to task the second UAV to identify the threat (an enemy air defence system) with Airbus’ AI-based ATR and report it to the operators at the ground station. Meanwhile, the first UAV continued monitoring the area for suspected threats. In the demonstration, Airbus and Primoco also successfully tested the integration of third-party applications other than Airbus’ own ATR. As the focus was to demonstrate the scalability of the teaming intelligence software to any UAS independent of manufacturer and its extensibility to other applications, the response to the threat was not part of the flight tests. However, the threat could have been neutralised by a pilot in a fighter jet using targeting data from the UAVs. Following the successful demonstration in Písek-Krašovice, Airbus is now working on the next steps: to further mature its teaming intelligence software as a product that can be installed on any fixed-wing, rotary-wing, crewed or uncrewed aircraft available on the market. The same goes for the integration of third party software components such as automated target recognition. This will also enable teaming intelligence outside of combat applications, for instance, for critical infrastructure inspections. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Group Sales Director Simon Hadfield at [email protected]