Breaking Defense spoke with Tim Saffold, Vice President, Autonomous and Unmanned Systems, Amentum, about the role of autonomous and unmanned systems in modern logistics. The use of unmanned systems can increase or expand reach, reduce risk to personnel, and enable more distributed, resilient operations.
Dassault Aviation has led a $200 million Series B funding round for Harmattan AI, a defense technology company developing vertically integrated autonomous systems. The investment will support expanding AI-enabled missions across new operational theaters, extending Harmattan AI's product offering into new domains and scaling industrial manufacturing of its ISR, drone interception, and electronic warfare platforms.
The US Marine Corps has selected Northrop Grumman and Kratos as the sole bidder for the MUX TACAIR program, worth up to $231.5 million. The teaming arrangement will integrate mission equipment onto Kratos's XQ-58 Valkyrie aircraft with Northrop's Prism software for autonomy.
China has successfully completed the first flight of its large unmanned 'mothership' aircraft, Jiutian, which is designed to carry dozens of smaller drones. The platform can deploy up to 100 UAVs in flight and has a range of several thousand miles.