Armada’s monthly round-up of all the latest electronic warfare news in the product, programme and operational domains.
Eviden Launches ELIT AI
On 18th May, Eviden unveiled its ELIT AI Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) sensor. A company press release stated that ELIT AI provides “real-time tactical radar situational awareness” and “faster visualisation and identification of complex radar waves” via its use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). ELIT AI comprises hardware and software which can be used on a range of platforms. The press release continued that ELIT AI is particularly effective at processing radar waveforms employing low probability of detection/interception techniques. The artificial intelligence algorithms used by ELIT AI have been realised entirely in house by Eviden. The company told Armada in a written statement that it “masters the full development cycle of its electronic warfare products, from design to delivery, thanks to its manufacturing plant located in Aix-en-Province in the south of France”. ELIT AI users can train the system’s software using external data “provided this labelled data is available in sufficient quantity to train our supervised AI models”. Other considerations in this regard include export licence authorisation and software data format compatibility. Although not confirmed by the company, Armada understands that ELIT AI may already be in service with the French armed forces, specifically the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force), to aid ELINT processing.
Ghostbusters
On 15th June SRC announced development of its Generation-3 Multi-Function Array (Gen-3 MFA) which forms part of the company’s Ghost Mantis family of advancing sensing technologies. Realisation of the Gen-3 MFA follows validation of SRC’s Generic Multi-Function Array technology onboard a Boeing MQ-28A uninhabited aerial vehicle. The MQ-28A has been designed to operate as a collaborative combat aircraft to assist its inhabited counterparts. An SRC press release stated that the Gen-3 MFA is built around an ultra-wideband, high-power multifunction array. Several capabilities are under development for this system including an “airborne moving target indicator, ground moving target indicator, synthetic aperture radar, (radio frequency) emulation, sense-and-avoid (and) airborne weather monitoring”. According to Andrew Tormey, SRC’s assistant vice president for business development, other capabilities facilitated by the Gen-3 MFA include electronic attack, electronic support, signal identification and direction finding. Mr Tormey continued that the system has an open architecture to host “sovereign mission applications, third-party electronic warfare and sensing skills, rapid integration of emerging capabilities (and) non-vendor locked mission autonomy frameworks”. He added that “this approach allows defence partners to integrate nationally developed algorithms, effects, and mission behaviours directly into the aperture without relying on proprietary vendor gateways”. SRC plans to develop the Gen-3 MFA to Technology Readiness Level Nine (TRL-9). Under US Department of Defence stipulations, TRL-9 is the last step in the development cycle before a system is considered ready for production. Gen-3 MFA test flights are planned for late 2027 and “these flights will serve as a major milestone on the path towards operational readiness and TRL-9 maturity”, Mr. Tormey concluded.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
