Added: Over a year ago by Leonardo
Leonardo UK is inviting UK-based Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), start-ups and academia to participate in the Combat Air AI Challenge to harness disruptive technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP): the mission to build the next generation combat air platform for the UK, Italy and Japan by 2035.
The Combat Air AI Challenge is a joint endeavour with ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and is closely related to Leonardo UK’s work within GCAP, which is to develop and deploy Integrated Sensing And Non-Kinetic Effects (ISANKE) and Integrated Communication Systems (ICS). The ISANKE super-system is a complex network of capabilities that sits across the combat air domain and, whilst co-ordinating numerous sensors, assimilates information into a common situational awareness picture as part of an integrated offering.
ISANKE will unlock the potential of sixth generation tactical sensing by transitioning individual airborne sensors towards a fully integrated sensing, fusion and self-protection capability. ICS will enable ISANKE to operate as an adaptive mesh network across formations of crewed and un-crewed aircraft. Collectively, ISANKE and ICS will have the capability to dynamically self-optimise how sensing and effecting are best performed across the formation in a given tactical situation. Ultimately, the ISANKE and ICS capability will help the aircrew to survive and operate more effectively in the complex and highly contested battlespace of tomorrow.
The Combat Air AI Challenge consists of two streams:
Stream 1 looks to utilise Deep Reinforcement Learning to inform sensor resource management across the ISANKE super-system by modelling behaviour of the Blue Force platform whilst exposed to a range of operational conditions.
Stream 2 intends to explore potential deployment of deep integrated sensor fusion across the ISANKE super-system using Machine Learning.
Each stream will consist of a pilot project with nominated participants, lasting approximately six months in duration and requiring completion by December 2023. We anticipate that the successful completion of pilot projects will potentially lead to wider collaboration(s) in the GCAP ISANKE problem space.
The Combat Air AI Challenge intends to act as a high profile, fast-paced, open innovation incubator to test out disruptive ideas and potential longer-term collaboration opportunities in the GCAP domain. In partnership with Dstl, as part of Team Tempest, £250,000 in total has been provisioned to support nominated participants develop their solution.
By drawing on the state-of-the-art knowledge-base of start-ups, SMEs and academia, we hope to unlock the impact of AI within GCAP. This will also help build a UK eco-system of skilled professionals, as well as organisations adept at operating within this problem space.
