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Lockheed Martin Australia has completed a field capability demonstration of its “Agile Shield” battle management system at the Puckapunyal Military Area in Victoria.
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The counter improvised threat detection, neutralisation, and mitigation system was deployed to Puckapunyal, set up and tested over three weeks in a series of live environment demonstrations for Australian Defence Force personnel.
The battle management system, developed by Lockheed Martin Australia’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Leadership and Research Laboratory (STELaRLab), is capable of operating in a complex joint battlespace, minimising risk to Defence personnel and civilians.
“The successful completion of the field capability demonstration represents a critical milestone in the development of this important sovereign Defence capability,” according to STELaRLab director Dr Tony Lindsay.
“While the demonstration focused on countering Uninhabited Aerial System threats, the Agile Shield battle management system will empower the Australian Defence Force to respond effectively to the increasingly complex and sophisticated array of improvised threats emerging from across land, air, and maritime domains.”
The trials also included the deployment of a cluster of Agile Shield nodes into a controlled environment targeted by uninhabited aerial system threats.
Sensor data from the nodes was fused into a common operating picture for analysis by the system’s intelligent threat evaluation and weapon assignment algorithms, which then generated optimised engagement recommendations to enhance the likelihood of defeating the UAS threats.
STELaRLab Agile Shield chief engineer Kevin McDonald said the Agile Shield system interface enables an operator to either approve or reject engagement recommendations or generate manual engagement commands. Finally, authorised commands were then sent to the effectors for execution to engage the UAS threats.
“Over the last three years, we have worked closely with industry partners to realise our shared vision of a modular, open mission system design for the Agile Shield battle management system,” according to McDonald.
“The field capability demonstration allowed us to show that, while the Agile Shield battle management system has the intrinsic capability for fully-autonomous operation, the design philosophy is founded on agility and ability to adapt to the unknown – characteristics that fundamentally mandate a warfighter-centric approach.”
As the prime system integrator, STELaRLab has partnered with Australian small-medium sized enterprises in the design and implementation of the Agile Shield battle management system, including Clearbox Systems, InTrack Solutions, DroneShield, Department 13, Codarra Advanced Systems, Trakka Corp, and Silentium Defence.
Lockheed Martin Australia was awarded the $9 million contract to develop Agile Shield in 2021 under Defence’s Counter Improvised Threats Grand Challenge (CIT-GC).
“Agile Shield demonstrates the ability of the Australian defence, science and technology ecosystem to develop an innovative Defence capability to enhance the Australian warfighter,” said Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya Monro.
“Employing a mix of sensors and effectors against a suite of Unoccupied Aerial Systems or UAS, the development team successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the Agile Shield Command and Control System.”
