In late 2022, the Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE) program, a joint collaboration between DARPA, the Army, and the U.S. Air Force, successfully demonstrated new automated flightpath-planning software in a simulated battle in contested airspace. The software was able to deconflict friendly missiles, artillery fire, and manned and unmanned aircraft while avoiding enemy fires.
Graphic: DARPA
The demonstration took place at the U.S. Army’s Mission Command Battle Lab, where the ASTARTE software seamlessly integrated with the Army’s Integrated Mission Planning and Airspace Control Tools (IMPACT) software suite. Managed by the Aviation Mission Systems and Architecture Project Office in the Program Executive Office for Aviation, IMPACT is a suite of tools designed to enable efficient and effective airspace operations and de-confliction in a highly congested anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment.
The ASTARTE program began in 2021 with the goal of providing an accurate, real-time common operational picture of the airspace over an Army division. This would enable long-range fire missions, as well as manned and unmanned aircraft operations, to occur safely in the same airspace. The program aims to support the Army’s 2030 Multi-Domain Operations vision.
During the demonstration, ASTARTE performer Raytheon Technologies developed an automated flightpath-planning capability for fixed and rotary wing aircraft, which includes the capability to deconflict airspace use by routing through or around defined airspace coordinating measures (ACMs) in both space and time. General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) developed the Army’s IMPACT suite, which adds a Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) class of data-enabled, over-the-horizon tools to existing airspace management systems to form a multidomain capability.
The integration of ASTARTE and IMPACT helps the warfighter by reducing procedural burden, increasing accuracy, and forming a foundation of artificial intelligence-enabled services that will interact with other service component AI tools. Paul Zablocky, ASTARTE program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office, said, “Coordinating and consolidating services at the user level greatly reduces procedural burden, which speeds the enterprise. ASTARTE also increases accuracy by automating tasks and reducing inherent human error. Most importantly, the ASTARTE and IMPACT integration forms a foundation of artificial intelligence-enabled services that will interact with other service component AI tools such as the Air Force’s Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite (KRADOS) for planning and the All Domain Common Platform (ADCP) for operations.”
During the demonstration, GDMS and Raytheon identified the interfaces allowing the ASTARTE flightpath planner to receive flight path requests with associated constraints from IMPACT and returned complete deconflicted flight paths back to IMPACT on demand. This novel approach for transitioning cutting-edge microservices and software components developed by the science and technology community very quickly into military service programs of records was also illustrated.
ASTARTE is currently wrapping up Phase 2 integration efforts and is scheduled to begin Phase 3 live testing this summer. The program represents a significant step forward in the development of technology that can improve situational awareness and enable the safe and effective operation of aircraft and other systems in congested and contested airspace.
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