We’re helping our customers from two angles:
- Firstly, we’re building an AI-enabled system to help rapidly detect and identify enemy drones, then present that information to a user along with options to neutralise that drone. This is our BAE Systems Anti Threat System, or BATS.
- Secondly, we’re making it easier to use autonomy, which can help uncrewed systems continue their mission when comms signals are denied in EW-contested environments. We’re doing this with an AI tool that allows you to command uncrewed systems by voice alone, setting the mission intent by speaking naturally, with the system able to then translate that intent into the physical actions needed. Because of this, the comms link won’t need to be continuous or have the high data requirements of manually controlled drones, since human input is only required occasionally.
Using AI in managing EW is all about adapting faster than the adversary. In warzones today, a comms channel that works in the morning could well be jammed by the afternoon or even earlier. The EW systems we’re creating dynamically learn and respond to shifting enemy tactics, using Software Defined Radios (SDRs) that can be rapidly updated and reconfigured for a variety of missions. Those same SDRs can be used to detect enemy drone transmissions, and when combined with radar and other sensors can help flag EW-resistant fibre-optic and autonomous drones, signalling to operators the need for a kinetic response.
These innovations are at the heart of our developing counter-drone BATS system, which is built to also work with third-party sensors or effectors. This way, a customer would be able to use their existing or new third-party equipment with our system, rather than needing to replace what they’ve already purchased.
Electromagnetic Warfare might not be new, but with the need to stay connected to uncrewed systems it’s taken on much greater importance. It's a powerful tool for our customers to deny enemy drones from their own airspace – whether in the battlespace or domestically – as well as an added requirement to 'harden' our own uncrewed systems to operate in contested environments.