WASHINGTON — Defense firm SNC and software company Applied Intuition are teaming up to supply autonomous weapon systems with a priority on air defense, the two companies announced today.
“This partnership epitomizes the merger of Silicon Valley’s innovation pace with advanced defense rigor, setting a new standard for rapid, effective and operationally relevant technology deployment,” SNC CEO Fatih Ozmen said in a press release.
A “near-term focus” of the new partnership, according to the release announcing the move, is to pair SNC air defense systems with off-road autonomy provided by Applied. In other words, the SNC tech, dubbed by the company as Expeditionary Air Defense Systems, would be mounted on vehicles that could drive autonomously using Applied’s autonomy software.
An Applied spokesperson said in response to questions from Breaking Defense that autonomy features include “the vehicle, collaborative vehicle emplacement” and “remote ‘man-on-the-loop; operations.” The two companies are additionally “working on extending autonomy to the air defense system in line” with DoD regulations. A spokesperson for SNC added that Applied “will have control of the autonomy for ground vehicles with planned operator-out control of the air defense system in line with Pentagon policy on weapons system engagement.”
“Combining Silicon Valley speed, innovation and engineering power with decades of experience in complex defense systems, Applied and SNC are determined to make battlefield autonomy not just a concept for the future, but a capability ready for deployment now,” added Applied CEO Qasar Younis in the press release.
The new collaboration “will explore key opportunities” to fuse Applied’s autonomy and simulation software “with a variety of SNC’s mission-tested systems across domains.” Work will be “concentrate[d] on challenges in localized missile defense” and counter-drone operations, the release says.
SNC currently offers the BRAWLR air defense system, which the company previously confirmed to Breaking Defense has been deployed and downed over 400 aerial threats, as well as the MAAWLR platform that can mobilize the BRAWLR and other weapon systems. An SNC spokesperson said today the MAAWLR is one of the “near-term priorities” for the new partnership with Applied, but several opportunities are being examined.
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Applied offers autonomy solutions for both commercial and defense applications, and earlier this year acquired the firm EpiSci to expand from a focus on ground vehicles to include sea and air platforms. Since then, Applied has been one of six companies revealed to be using a Northrop Grumman AI testbed aircraft.