BAE Systems wins AFRL contract to develop ATR technology

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded BAE Systems a US$7.8 million contract to develop tightly integrated machine learning software as part of the Multi-Sensor Exploitation for Tactical Autonomy (META) program. This technology will enable advanced situational awareness and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR).

Under the terms of the award, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs™ research and development organization will provide Environmentally Adaptive Geospatial Learning and Exploitation, an innovative suite of machine learning and fusion algorithms. The system integrates multiple elements of the company’s extensive autonomy portfolio to provide high confidence detection, tracking, identification, and intent understanding for critical mobile targets in contested environments, including targets under camouflage, concealment, and deception.

“With the addition of environmentally adaptive processing, this solution bridges a critical gap in machine learning,” said Mark Kolba, program manager for BAE Systems’ FAST Labs. “Providing local situational awareness and human-like context of environmental conditions will greatly reduce false alarms.”

BAE Systems has a history of developing autonomous data exploitation capabilities for systems and sensors for potential use in US military operations across air and space domains. This program builds on the success of the company’s Multi-intelligence ATR for Geospatial Intelligence Capabilities technology that was successfully developed through AFRL’s earlier Study of Emerging Exploitation Developments program.

The software enhances BAE Systems’ extensive autonomy portfolio and 20-year history pioneering autonomy technology