The US Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC Pacific) contracted Elbit Systems Of America to develop and demonstrate an autonomous maritime target tracking capability as part of the US Navy’s Information Warfare Research project (IWRP). The company will test its prototype in a series of demonstrations at sea during the next 12 months.

The IWRP supports the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and ensures the connectivity of the US and allied forces across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. Elbit America’s autonomy prototype will extend the reach of those forces by leveraging attritable systems to covertly find, fix and track maritime targets, as directed by operational commanders.

The prototype leverages unique autonomy, artificial intelligence, automatic target recognition, and undersea payload delivery capabilities.

Protecting maritime assets

Many countries are concerned about threats to their critical assets and infrastructure at sea. Companies are enhacing submarines with multi-mission capabilities: from acoustic reduction to the deployment of uncrewed underwater vehicles. GlobalData tells us that the global submarine market will reach $45bn by 2033.

So far this year defence companies have expanded their capacity in the maritime domain, particularly in subsea counter-measures. The Italian Navy has set up an integration centre for Thales at its La Speiza naval base, where the company will centralise all maintenance activities in a single dedicated organisation: from training to simulation; from the integration and installation of electronic and mechanical hardware; to the maintenance and testing.

Elbit’s autonomous maritime target tracking provides a coveted solution to these defensive measures at sea, and the President and CEO of the company, Raanan Horowitz, identifies how the US Navy is similarly grappling with this, especially as their presence increases in the Indo-Pacific region over the next decade.

“Our selection as a prime contractor for the Navy’s Information Warfare Research Project validates that our company’s portfolio is in alignment with the US national defence strategy.

“We are committed to strengthening our country’s national security and we’re investing in critical maritime technologies such as unmanned systems and sensors, attributable payloads, and undersea connectivity solutions to ensure that we can continue to innovate capabilities most needed by our customers,” Horowitz stated.