Derrick Henry
MITRE has built a prototype that would allow industry partners to develop autonomous platforms that comply with the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Autonomy Architecture, or UMAA, standard.
The UMAA-compliant technology was created by combining commercial hardware with an open-source software package, MITRE said Wednesday. It would enable the industry to save time and money when designing and constructing uncrewed vessels for the Navy.
Leveraging Commercial Platforms
According to Matt Cuomo, an autonomous systems engineer at MITRE, the UMAA capabilities were created to support various open-source platforms, noting that the prototype “will lower the price of autonomy for the government.”
“Our UMAA-compliance solution will allow the Navy to take full advantage of commercial-off-the-shelf platforms,” he said.
Customized Tech for Navy’s Future Operations
In July 2024, MITRE participated in the Navy’s Silent Swarm exercise in Michigan and worked with a commercial vendor to test the capabilities’ software stack. At the event, engineers showcased a commercial platform’s command and control functionalities using the UMAA prototype.
According to Michelle Sit, lead engineer for the MITRE project, the exercise exhibited the fielding of the technology in real-world conditions and operational environments. She added that the event demonstrated “how to tailor our system for future operations.”
During the demo, MITRE proved that the prototype can be integrated into existing commercial platforms while protecting proprietary information, a feature that supports the company’s mission of developing and transferring capabilities to the commercial sector for the public good.
