DARPA unveils new SoSITE program for maintaining air superiority
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Aviation
defence equipment technology - DARPA SoS program |
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| DARPA unveils new SoSITE program for maintaining air superiority | |||||
DARPA
recently revealed
its plans in order to integrate new technologies and airborne systems
with existing systems more quickly and at lower cost than near-peer adversaries
can counter them. DARPA's new program aims to develop and demonstrate
concepts for maintaining air superiority through novel SoS architectures--combinations
of aircraft, weapons, sensors and mission systems--that distribute air
warfare capabilities across a large number of interoperable manned and
unmanned platforms. |
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DARPA's System of Systems (SoS) Integration Technology and Experimentation
(SoSITE) program (Credit: DARPA) |
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For
decades, the United States has successfully countered the threats of competitor
nations by harnessing advanced technologies to create exceedingly robust
and capable military platforms. But as advanced technologies have become
more readily available to adversaries on commercial markets, the Nation’s
focus on ever more complex weapons systems has become not just a strength
but also a weakness. Effective as they are, U.S. military systems today
are often too expensive to procure in the quantities needed, and may take
so long to develop that the electronic components they contain are obsolete
by the time they become operational.
To address these challenges as they apply to airborne platforms, DARPA has kicked off the System of Systems (SoS) Integration Technology and Experimentation (SoSITE) program. SoSITE aims to develop and demonstrate concepts for maintaining air superiority through novel SoS architectures—combinations of aircraft, weapons, sensors and mission systems—that distribute air warfare capabilities across a large number of interoperable manned and unmanned platforms. The vision is to integrate new technologies and airborne systems with existing systems faster and at lower cost than near-peer adversaries can counter them. “It can take decades and cost billions of dollars to field or upgrade advanced airborne systems today,” said Nils Sandell, director of DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office (STO). “As a result, the modernization of subsystems in these complex platforms has not kept pace with the rapid advances in commercial technology. A system-of-systems approach could help overcome this inherent issue with high-cost, monolithic, multi-function platforms.” SoSITE focuses on developing concepts and architectures for distributed air warfare, as well as the technical integration tools to make that possible. The program plans to harness existing airborne systems’ capabilities and reduce the cost and development timeline for new systems by using an open-systems architecture approach. Open-systems architectures create common standards and tools for developing interchangeable modules and platforms that can be quickly upgraded and swapped out as needed. This concept enables distribution of key functions, such as electronic warfare; sensors; weapons; battle management; positioning, navigation and timing; and data/communication links, across a variety of manned and unmanned platforms. |
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 DARPA's
SoSITE program illustration (Credit: DARPA) |
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| “We
are working closely with the Services on their open-systems architecture
initiatives,” said John Shaw, SoSITE program manager in STO.
“We are developing technologies to make those architectures
enduring and secure, including building in defenses against cyber attacks,
enabling standards to evolve as technology advances while maintaining
backward compatibility, and providing tools for more rapid system composition
and testing. If we are successful, the Services will be able to add or
swap out capabilities across existing manned and unmanned platforms at
lower cost and in shorter time. The goal is to plug modules that perform
different airborne functions into any type of airborne platform and have
them work seamlessly.”
SoSITE will take advantage of advances in miniaturization, increased capability and decreased cost of electronics, new algorithms and software technology, and advanced materials for creating innovative unmanned platforms. Cost savings may be realized by separating payload from platforms, thereby allowing defense planners greater flexibility in choosing cost-vs-capability tradeoffs for each. “The potential benefit of separating payloads from platforms using open system architectures can be understood using the example of smartphone technology and apps,” Shaw said. “The ecosystem for smartphones invites new and better apps by shifting significant portions of the development burden onto well-defined development tool kits; these allow app developers to create new capabilities and get them quickly into an app store for consumers to use. You don’t need to buy a new smartphone every time an app comes out with a new capability. SoSITE’s technology integration focus area will build the ‘under-the-hood’ verification and cyber-defense capabilities so airborne platforms can host interchangeable ‘app’ functions.” DARPA
has awarded contracts to develop concepts for system-of-systems architectures
and tools to facilitate their more rapid integration and testing. Under
those contracts, Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop
Grumman are developing and analyzing promising system-of-system architectures
and are designing plans for flight experimentation with these architectures.
Apogee Systems, BAE Systems and Rockwell Collins are developing tools
and technologies to enhance current open-system architecture approaches.
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