The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US military, and industry partners have tested automated aerial battlefield planning software at the US Army’s Mission Command Battle Lab in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The platform is designed to “deconflict” or reduce airspace risk in contested environments.
The demonstration involved integrating Raytheon Technologies’ Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE) software with the army’s Integrated Mission Planning and Airspace Control Tools (IMPACT) suite.
Maintaining Airspace Safety
During the trial, the combined capabilities were used to facilitate deconfliction between drones, aircraft, missiles, and artillery in an active battlefield simulation.
ASTARTE received flightpath requests according to aerial limitations processed by IMPACT, such as altitude, timing, and start/end points.
“The demonstration showed that complex route alternatives could be created in seconds, leveraging available permissive airspace to avoid airspace where conflicts would potentially occur,” DARPA ASTARTE Program Manager Paul Zablocky stated.
“There are many reasons this integration helps the warfighter. Coordinating and consolidating services at the user level greatly reduces procedural burden, which speeds the enterprise.”
“ASTARTE also increases accuracy by automating tasks and reducing inherent human error.”
ASTARTE Program
The ASTARTE Program was launched in 2021 by DARPA, the US Army, and the US Air Force to provide warfighters with efficient airspace operations in highly congested scenarios and anti-access/area denial missions.
The effort focuses on gaining a real-time, accurate overview of the aerial battlefield to sustain interoperability between long-range firing and manned/unmanned aircraft flights.
The program’s Phase 3 live testing is scheduled for the summer of 2023.
“The ASTARTE and IMPACT integration forms a foundation of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled services that will interact with other service component AI tools such as the Air Force’s Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite for planning and the All Domain Common Platform for operations,” Zablocky said.
