Jamie Bennet
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. worked with Lockheed Martin and Tactical Air Support in a joint effort to conduct a flight demonstration of multi-platform infrared sensing.
The test flight was carried out using GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger unmanned aircraft system, a Sabreliner jet, and two F-5 Advanced Tigers equipped with Lockheed’s next-generation Tactical Infrared Search and Track sensors, General Atomics said Wednesday.
The demo involved live, virtual and constructive combat simulations with five digital twins of the MQ-20. With tactical targeting network technology mesh network connections and TacIRST sensors, all the aircraft were able to track air-to-air moving targets and share their observations during detection.
“This test flight has broken new ground for us,” said Michael Atwood, senior director of advanced programs at GA-ASI.
“It demonstrated effective collaboration between four established defense prime contractors flying with advanced sensing, crewed and uncrewed teaming, and advanced airborne high-performance computing to meet challenging air dominance scenarios.”
EMC2, a multifunction tool that employs software-defined architecture from General Dynamics‘ mission systems unit, processed data from the test.
