Armada’s monthly round-up of all the latest electronic warfare news in the product, programme and operational domains.
Hosts for Ghosts
On 18th September, SRC unveiled its Ghost Mantis electronic warfare system designed to outfit Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). SRC’s official literature says that Ghost Mantis is “(a) low-cost, modular, next-generation electronic warfare payload that enables advanced concepts of operations and tactics.” The company told Armada that Ghost Mantis uses artificial intelligence to identify, deceive and deactivate threats, while sharing threat data offboard in real time. The company claims that Ghost Mantis costs one-tenth of similar systems but offers more advanced threat detection and elimination. Colonel (rtd.) David Tommey, SRC’s assistant vice president for business development told Armada that Ghost Mantis is “customised using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and plug-in modules, allowing it to handle a wide variety of transmit and receive modes, and processing functions, without modifying the payload’s chassis, core processing backplane or antenna.” The Ghost Mantis architecture includes sensor open systems architecture-aligned radio frequency and high-performance mission computing subsystems. Regarding the airframes Ghost Mantis can outfit, Col. Toomey said the system is platform agnostic and can be customised for various size, weight and power constraints. He continued that flight demonstrations should commence by the end of 2024 and continue into 2025. Production could then begin in the 2026 to 2027 timeframe. Col. Toomey said that Ghost Mantic has been developed in support of the United States’ Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme.
Cool prizes
In early September, CRFS announced it had won in the sensor category at the US Army’s 2023 Technology Excellence Awards for the company’s RFeye Node 100-18LW radio frequency sensing system. The sensor can be integrated on small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This product is a reduced-sized version of its RFeye Node 100-18. The company says it realised the RFeye Node 100-18LW within four months of receiving an urgent requirement from an undisclosed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation customer. CRFS says the RFeye Node 100-18LW can monitor diverse signal types in a design weighing under two kilograms (four pounds). These signals include low probability of interception/detection transmissions. As well as being integrated on small UAVs, the RFeye Node 100-18LW can outfit small uninhabited ground vehicles. CRFS told Armada that the main challenge in developing the RFeye Node 100-18LW was “thermal management and heat dissipation with such little amounts of material available to hit the payload constraints. Basically, lots of heat and not much aluminium to work with to keep it under two kilograms and enable it to stay cool at extreme temperatures.”
Battle Buddy ready for EW
EdgeRunner has shared with Armada that its AI Battle Buddy software can support Electronic Warfare (EW) missions. The hardware-agnostic system includes artificial intelligence algorithms and needs eight gigabits of random access memory. The company said in a written statement that AI Battle Buddy “is built on advanced machine learning algorithms, enabling real-time data analysis, predictive insights, and adaptive decision-making.” The software can be used to “process vast amounts of battlefield data, recognise patterns, and generate actionable intelligence.” EdgeRunner continued that the “AI Battle Buddy is in the advanced stages of development, having undergone extensive testing in collaboration with key defence partners.” Although not yet commercially available, the software is being used in pilot programmes by undisclosed military units “to assess its effectiveness in real-world scenarios.” Full-scale production should commence over the next month. The written statement continued that the software “offers unparalleled support for EW missions by providing real-time threat analysis, signal intelligence, and rapid decision-making capabilities through natural language processing akin to a human conversation.” AI Battle Buddy can “adapt to evolving EW threats, predict enemy tactics, and recommend optimal countermeasures. Its predictive analytics capabilities also allow it to anticipate adversary moves, providing a significant tactical advantage in highly contested electromagnetic environments.” The product can be used at both the operational and tactical levels. Several allied nations have also expressed interest in the technology “with plans to initiate joint testing exercises in the coming months to explore its integration into their EW frameworks.”
by Dr. Thomas Withington
