Northrop Demos Multi-Vehicle Collaborative Autonomous System at Annual Naval Technology Exercise

Northrop Grumman has demonstrated a cross-domain anti-submarine warfare approach for autonomous undersea, surface and air vehicles during the Naval Undersea Warfare Center’s Annual Naval Technology Exercise in Newport, Rhode Island.

The company said Thursday the demonstration featured mission management and control of a multi-vehicle collaborative autonomous system-of-systems designed to search, detect, track, classify and engage submerged targets.

Multiple sensors on autonomous undersea, surface and air vehicles were used to facilitate  the development of a real-time tracking system that helped a surrogate autonomous air vehicle engage a target with a replica torpedo during the demonstration, the company noted.

Brian Chappel, Northrop vice president of autonomous systems, said the integration of the autonomous systems across different maritime environments can provide a shared allied network and common operating picture for maritime domain awareness.

The three-day ANTX event allows participants from the government, academic and commercial sectors to showcase technologies for the U.S. Navy in a low-risk environment.

Northrop added it has worked with Ultra USSI and Liquid Robotics to validate various sensors and systems using autonomous surface vehicles.