How partnerships drive the autonomy strategy for L3Harris

L3Harris’ Arabian Fox outfitted with BigBear.ai’s AI-based forecasting, situational awareness analytics, and computer vision capabilities will advance manned-unmanned teaming.

L3Harris’ Arabian Fox outfitted with BigBear.ai’s AI-based forecasting, situational awareness analytics, and computer vision capabilities will advance manned-unmanned teaming. Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Vincent Aguirre

The president of L3Harris' integrated mission systems segment tells us about his company's collaboration with BigBear.ai and how that feeds into a larger push toward something new.

L3Harris Technologies' push to be the defense industry's "nontraditional sixth prime" and "trusted disruptor" also involves looking outside of itself into the partnership ecosystem.

That has led L3Harris to team up with artificial intelligence integration company BigBear.ai on creating new products for autonomous surface vessels for the Navy.

Jon Rambeau, president of L3Harris' integrated mission systems segment, told WT the idea was to incorporate BigBear's AI products into his company's autonomy software to aid in the identification and tracking of other vessels.

"We were able to do a better job of not just executing a set of pre-defined commands, but also observing the environment around it," Rambeau told me in an interview at L3Harris' Washington, D.C. office. "It actually allows the software to start interpreting its environment and be more helpful in reporting back what it's seen."

Both companies formally announced their collaboration on Monday but their working together predates that. The move to make this partnership official followed a series of discussions that progressed to a point where both companies saw an opportunity to "marry up two technologies" they see as stronger together, Rambeau said.

"I find that the best partnerships are the ones that are borne out of some mutual success," Rambeau said. "In many cases you might start talking to a partner about good ideas and it's hard to find a way to turn those good ideas into something tangible that really creates value."

"The thought process there (with BigBear) is: we clearly have a foundation of successful collaboration on which to build," Rambeau said.

During BigBear's first quarter earnings call last week, chief executive Mandy Long said their role in the partnership is to supply computer vision and predictive analytics to L3Harris in an effort to improve unmanned teaming in the seas.

"How we're looking at it is that as additional vessels are built and are released and begin to operate, that our software will be running on that," Long said. "There is obviously a go-forward market associated with new unmanned surface vessels that are built, but there's also a market associated with retrofitting existing vessels that are on the water and our intent to be able to support and service both."

Some context is in order to highlight the government customer requirement landscape. The Navy and Marine Corps have made unmanned and autonomous technologies a priority in their efforts to see more of the battlefield for longer periods of time, including in places that are hard-to-reach or too dangerous for people to be in.

Melbourne, Florida-headquartered L3Harris has in the meantime cast itself as a defense company that departs from doing business-as-usual since the merger to create it in the summer of 2019.

One pathway for L3Harris to make that happen in the world of autonomous systems is found in its ASView system, which is the software that BigBear's AI capabilities will be combined with under their partnership.

L3Harris developed ASView to enable autonomous and remote control of uncrewed vehicles, while that product has been deployed on more than 100 newly-built and retrofitted surface vessels.

The retrofitting aspect represents a sharp departure from prior approaches and ideas on how to make autonomy a reality. Rambeau told me L3Harris is looking at how it can refurbish existing commercial vessels for military usage, which would include more robust communications and sensor systems onboard.

"You could do that in say 12-to-15 months versus what may take twice that time if you were going to build a small-to-medium ship from scratch," Rambeau said. "We've found there are some very capable commercial ships out there, midsized vessels.

"Ironically, many of them are minimally crewed today. They have a lot of automation already and some of the mechanical controls for some of these commercial vessels, so we think there's a real opportunity to speed up the process."

Rambeau said that five years ago,the defense industry and most of its customers were talking about autonomous maritime systems as "the future." Now the conversation has turned to capabilities that are in action today.

"What most of our customers are talking about is how do we create an environment where the unmanned systems can operate in partnership with the manned capabilities," Rambeau said.

L3Harris believes a set of passive sensing solutions it provides to the Air Force presents a blueprint for making that teaming arrangement happen for the Navy's surface fleet, where vehicles with no crew augment others with people on them.

Which brings up this big-picture solution Rambeau described:

"How could there be some unmanned platforms that deploy further ahead of a battle group, sensing what's in the environment, feeding that information back to the manned platforms, to provide them a greater range of awareness, to provide greater insight into what our adversaries might be doing."

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.