Northrop Grumman invests in artificial intelligence (AI) to promote onboard processing of satellite data

Feb. 18, 2021
While AI technology can apply to satellites, the technology also can integrate with aircraft, where payloads can be easily accessed or swapped out.

WASHINGTON – Officials of Northrop Grumman Corp. in Falls Church, Va., say a new investment into small startup Deepwave Digital in Philadelphia will enable their company to push data processing much closer to the point of collection, decreasing the amount of data that needs to be transported and getting products to warfighters quickly. Defense News reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

18 Feb. 2021 -- Northrop Grumman will install Deepwave Digital’s artificial intelligence (AI) solution on aircraft and satellites, says Chris Daughters, the company’s vice president of research, technology, and engineering for aeronautics systems.

With the AI incorporated into the payload, the satellites or aircraft no longer must send data back to the ground for processing. Instead, the onboard payload will process the data itself.

AI has been key to military efforts to manage the torrent of satellite and aircraft data, which is simply too much for human analysts to sort through on their own. To reduce the bandwidth, U.S. Army officials suggest a shift to edge processing.

Related: Wanted: companies to build spacecraft, sensor payloads, and on-board data processing for small satellites

Related: Air Force to use artificial intelligence and other advanced data processing to hit the enemy where it hurts

Related: 5-volt radiation-tolerant multiplexers for space applications introduced by Intersil

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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