US warfighters can kill drone swarms in ‘quarter of a second’ with AI upgrade

Defense innovation company Northrop Grumman has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) feature which is intends to help warfighters make informed, real-time decisions on the move for countering drone swarms.

The Forward Area Air Defense (FAAD) Advanced Battle Manager (ABM) offers an AI alternative for countering the complexity of threats in the counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) mission space.

The new AI feature will streamline decision-making to ensure defeat of the unmanned aerial systems with just a single click on a mobile tablet. This could help US military, and its allies, enhance their maneuverability.

The system was successfully tested in spring and late summer at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.

Northrop Grumman’s AI upgrade for FAAD

The ABM designed by Northrop Grumman is an AI-driven upgrade for the its FAAD Command and Control (FAAD-C2), which is already being used by the US forces.

FAAD simultaneously integrates short-range air defense, counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar and C-UAS missions. As these missions evolve, the need for the warfighter’s user experience to be simple and clear during high-stress multi-target engagement scenarios has increased.

FAAD is a real-time safety critical command and control software, providing a single integrated air picture, airspace coordination and deconfliction and fire control to support multi-domain missions.

Its open, multi-domain architecture enables integration and interoperability across diverse platforms and systems.

It can be quickly deployed, providing command and control to areas limited in robust communication as well as permanent and reinforced support areas.

The ABM can take the data FAAD-C2 receives from multiple sensors to analyze the threat, and then goes on to recommend the best possible course of action in real time.

All of this is done while taking into consideration the best possible counter weapon for every threat, and at the same time recognizing and US and allied assets to ensure they are out of harm’s way from the countermeasures deployed.

ABM’s capabilities at countering drone swarms

The ABM makes real-time weapon-target pairings across disparate kinetic and non-kinetic weapons by leveraging AI and years of live fire data.

Northrop says that the ABM can plan for complex aerial swarm scenarios with numerous weapons against varying threats – also known as ‘weapon-target pairing’, and it supports real-time data processing with minimal delay, generating engagement plans in under a quarter of a second.

Another added advantage that comes with the ABM is that it offer continuous monitoring of the battle space and change the plans for engagements, keeping the weapon types it has at its disposal.

Moreover, its open architecture design allows new weapons to be easily integrated in the future.

Kenn Todorov, vice president and general manager, global battle management and readiness, Northrop Grumman, said , “As threats evolve, the need for operations to become simple and clear during high-stress multi-target engagements has increased. This critical AI enhancement will create a streamlined and intuitive engagement plan giving service members more time to save lives with a single click.”

“Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Army’s collaboration in innovation ensures the combat-proven FAAD system remains at the forefront of C-UAS technology.”