T-REX Demo

At the U.S. Army’s Technology Readiness and Experimentation (T-REX) event, Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) and Skunk Works® fielded Coordinated Autonomous Remote Intercept (CARI).

CARI is a defensive, autonomous swarming capability deployed from truck-mounted launchers, and integrated with the Lockheed Martin Rotary & Mission Systems (RMS) Sanctum^TM counter-UAS sensor suite. The defensive swarm deployed an autonomous three-dimensional “wall” to block an opposing swarm of hostile drones in real time.

RMS Sanctum’s sensor processing, anchored by a Fortem R30 radar, keeps a constant watch over the sky, instantly flagging any hostile “red” swarm. The data then gets transmitted live to CARI’s on-board autonomy software, which instructs the Lockheed Martin launcher to autonomously release the swarm of defensive UAVs in response. 

CARI’s C2 and Swarm-Management module calculates the optimal blocking formation and location, assigning tasks to the drone swarm. All aircraft execute a collision-avoidance-aware flocking maneuver enroute to form a three-dimensional barrier directly in the path of incoming threats. As the red swarm moves, splits or accelerates, the blue swarm continuously re-calculates formation points and reshapes the barrier with minimal human input. When the operator switches to terminal-guidance mode, the blue UAVs can lock onto and intercept individual red aircraft.

• Full autonomous launch, flocking maneuvers, defensive swarm formation
• Dynamic response to incoming swarms, including split-track swarms
• Resilience to communications loss – the defensive wall remained effective after two drones temporarily lost connectivity
• Terminal-guidance lock, establishing the ability for active intercepts
• Successful deployment of Lockheed Martin’s VCSi Swarm Ground Control Station, allowing a single operator to manage the swarm of drones

CARI proves that a modest, truck-mounted launcher combined with a swarm of self-organizing drones can deliver a powerful, edge-autonomous defensive shield while keeping the operator’s workload to a minimum. Because the autonomy software isn’t tied to a single airframe, any UAV that meets the basic requirements can be slipped into the swarm. This gives warfighters a flexible, plug-and-play tool that can adapt to a wide range of counter-UAS missions, even in the most contested and communications-denied environments.

Swarm of UAVs conducting a fully autonomous collaborative swarm mission

CARI is just one component of Lockheed Martin’s Lion Swarm Autonomy portfolio, delivering capabilities across a wide range of platforms, missions, and technologies.  Scalable, heterogeneous platform autonomy executed onboard the aircraft at the edge delivers collaborative, resilient, swarm autonomy behaviors in support of dynamic mission objectives and constraints. 

Lion Swarm Autonomy was also recently demonstrated at OSW’s Swarm Forge Crucible in June, showcasing the portfolio’s ability to successfully deliver both offensive and defensive capabilities.