Matthew Nelson
U.S. Marine Corps personnel have deployed two artificial intelligence-based battlespace systems CACI International and Lockheed Martin developed through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to provide ground troops manned-unmanned teaming insights.
Infantry squad members tested Lockheed’s Augmented Spectral Situational Awareness and Unaided Localization for Transformative Squads system while wearing sensor-equipped vests as part of the SquadX Experimentation program, DARPA said Friday. They were guided by autonomous aerial and ground platforms that utilized ground radar systems, electronic surveillance tools and camera sensors to survey the areas during the field exercise.
In a separate demonstration, CACI’s BITS Electronic Attack Module Squad System helped squads to locate signals of interest and receive information with handheld Android tactical assault kits.
“The feedback process, in conjunction with the actual experimentation, gives the Marines the ability to use the technology and start seeing what it can do and, more specifically, what it can’t do,†said USMC Staff Sgt. Andrew Hall.
DARPA noted that CACI’s BEAM technology will move to the second phase of the program after completing a third experiment and the Army has pledged support further development efforts once the company completes Phase 2. Lockheed is set to conduct another experiment in the fall, then the service branch plans to support concurrent development work on the ASSAULTS system through fiscal 2020.
