Branson Brooks
Viasat participated in the Autonomous Warrior 24 exercise to showcase the company’s autonomous platforms for integrated communications throughout the U.S. Department of Defense.
The event, which took place Oct. 1 through 24, was part of the AUKUS Maritime Big Play initiative, a series of trilateral exercises and experiments to broaden the use of autonomous capabilities throughout the maritime domain, Viasat announced Wednesday.
During the exercise, Viasat collaborated with the DOD Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering to provide numerous satellite communication network platforms that aim to improve autonomous capabilities in the DOD.
David Schmolke, vice president of Viasat mission connections and cybersecurity, said, “Viasat is proud to support OUSD and AUKUS in addressing the network integration challenges for these experiments and the Maritime Big Play initiative.”
“The emergence of uncrewed, autonomous vehicles in Maritime, Ground and Airborne domains, will be a key differentiator in modern warfare operations, but the MUSIC architecture can enable a true mission advantage,” Schmolke noted.
Viasat’s NetAgility Platform
Viasat’s NetAgility platform demonstrated its ability to deliver network effects throughout partnering maritime surface and subsurface systems in the Autonomous Warrior 24 Exercise.
The software-defined networking platform aims to enable the company’s multidomain uncrewed secure integrated communications, or MUSIC, architecture and support efficient communication throughout transports by connecting autonomous vehicles, including sub-surface vessels and stratospheric high-altitude platforms.
“The emergence of uncrewed, autonomous vehicles in maritime, ground and airborne domains, will be a key differentiator in modern warfare operations, but the MUSIC architecture can enable a true mission advantage,” Schmolke stated. “Viasat’s ability to deliver flexible, software-defined tactical network solutions is critical to integrating disparate and traditionally non-interoperable networks into a harmonized network for autonomous and unmanned systems that will improve battlespace awareness and decision-making.”
Viasat also integrated commercial cellular and satellite radio networks with its move-out jump off-next, or MOJO Next, tactical data link gateway to connect uncrewed autonomous vehicles and sensors from various partners.
