Solution for Multi-Dimensional Airspace Challenge?

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Airspace management has become a major concern in military and civilian realms alike. One of the challenging problems in the military sphere is that the airspace above an Army division under the battlefield contains Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Special Operations, allied, and enemy manned and unmanned aircraft and munitions passing through the airspace. It also contains forces conducting fire missions and close air support. The airspace also may include commercial aircraft and other hazards. This multi-dimensional airspace has to be managed.

U.S. military researchers are looking to Raytheon Technologies to help develop a virtual and live testbed for combat airspace management.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $7.6 million contract to the Raytheon Intelligence & Space segment in Tewksbury, Mass. The move is part of the Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE) program. The company will develop the Airspace TacticaL Automation System (ATLAS) for the ASTARTE program. A testbed for airspace management systems, algorithms for airspace planning and operations, and a sensor network for real-time spatial and temporal tracking of manned and unmanned aircraft will be developed.

The virtual lab testbed will help model, simulate, and virtualize current joint military airspace management systems with interfaces to connect real-world hardware and software in a common software framework that supports virtual and real-world environments, according to militaryaerospace.com.