The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded BAE Systems a $17 million contract to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) into an interactive game environment to revolutionize air operations planning for contested environments. As part of the Fight Tonight program, the company will provide air operations planners with the tools they need to dramatically accelerate the process of planning complex air attack operations.

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The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded BAE Systems a $17 million contract to develop autonomy-based video game experience for mission planners. (Credit: BAE Systems)

Under the terms of the Technical Area 2, Plan Gaming and Outcome Analysis contract, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs™ research and development organization, along with subcontractors Uncharted Software and Kestrel Institute, will develop a solution to rapidly generate and review multiple plans and select the most robust.

“This technology is about using AI to provide commanders with more options faster and with more details to ensure the most robust plan is selected,” said Mike Miller, technical director for BAE Systems’ FAST Labs. “The drag-and-drop video game-like interactions would reduce the time it takes to make a series of incremental adjustments to a plan from hours to minutes.”

Long manual planning cycles often result in the consideration of fewer potential plan options. To address this challenge, the proposed offering will provide an interactive user interface that enables planners to rapidly explore and access plausible futures and select the best plans in a dynamic environment. These processes will be enhanced by tools that can generate and assess the feasibility of more plans than is currently possible without the aid of technology.

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

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