DARPA Funding Brings Machine Learning to BAE Systems’ Signals Intelligence Capabilities

Editor’s Note

The changing nature of warfare, rising conflicts and the never-ending great-power competition has given rise to complex geometries in global geopolitical positioning. The world's future is filled with eternal uncertainty. The advances in technology such as quantum computing. artificial intelligence and digital surveillance have transformed the military worldwide. As a driving force, technology has embedded itself in the power showbiz and has initiated an unprecedented competition between global powers including the emerging middle power. Acquiring innovative power, capacity to invent and adapting fast to new technologies is now a key determinant for all involved in the ongoing power game in the emerging new world order.

Raksha Anirveda’s latest web feature attempts to evaluate and understand the impact of technology in reshaping India's power aspiration through its Indian Armed Forces’ modernisation programme. The featured articles have been diligently curated. These articles analyse Indian Armed Forces’ adoption of innovation and technology. procurement of critical technology to become Aatmanirbhar, adaptability to disruptive and emerging technologies, and its digitisation efforts to emerge as a strong future-ready force. Raksha Anirveda invites esteemed readers - the driving force behind its evolving benchmark to indulge, explore and evaluate the feature presentation. Happy Reading!

BAE Systems has been awarded funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to integrate machine-learning (ML) technology into platforms that decipher radio frequency signals. Its Controllable Hardware Integration for Machine-learning Enabled Real-time Adaptivity (CHIMERA) solution provides a reconfigurable hardware platform for ML algorithm developers to make sense of radio frequency (RF) signals in increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum environments.

The up to $4.7 million contract, dependent on successful completion of milestones, includes hardware delivery along with integration and demonstration support. CHIMERA’s hardware platform will enable algorithm developers to decipher the ever-growing number of RF signals, providing commercial or military users with greater automated situational awareness of their operating environment. This contract is adjacent to the previously announced award for the development of data-driven ML algorithms under the same DARPA program (Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems, or RFMLS).

RFMLS requires a robust, adaptable hardware solution with a multitude of control surfaces to enable improved discrimination of signals in the evolving dense spectrum environments of the future.

“CHIMERA brings the flexibility of a software solution to hardware,” said Dave Logan, vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Systems at BAE Systems. “Machine-learning is on the verge of revolutionizing signals intelligence technology, just as it has in other industries.”

“Machine-learning is on the verge of revolutionizing signals intelligence technology, just as it has in other industries”

In an evolving threat environment, CHIMERA will enable ML software development to adapt the hardware’s RF configuration in real time to optimize mission performance. This capability has never before been available in a hardware solution. The system provides multiple control surfaces for the user, enabling on-the-fly performance trade-offs that can maximize its sensitivity, selectivity, and scalability depending on mission need. The system’s open architecture interfaces allow for third party algorithm development, making the system future-proof and easily upgradable upon deployment.

Other RF functions, including communications, radar, and electronic warfare, also can benefit from this agile hardware platform, which has a reconfigurable array, front-end, full transceiver and digital pre-processing stage. Work on these phases of the program will take place at BAE Systems’ sites in Hudson and Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Dallas, Texas.