BAE Systems to develop machine learning to identify signals in the RF spectrum for IARPA

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth $14 million advance machine learning and artificial intelligence technology and techniques to identify signals in the RF spectrum as part of the Securing Compartmented Information with Smart Radio Systems (SCISRS) program.

The technology is expected to provide enhanced situational awareness, help to target threats, and secure communications against malicious attacks.

“Our technology will identify RF signals in increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum environments, providing commercial or military users with greater automated situational awareness of their operating environment,” said Scott Kuzdeba, chief scientist for BAE Systems’ FAST Labs research and development organization.

The goal of the SCISRS program is to develop smart radio techniques to automatically understand these environments in order to enable securing our data, including detecting and characterizing complex RF anomalies and unexpected signals. The specific types of anomalies include hidden, altered, or mimicked signals, and abnormal unintended emissions.

The program, which includes collaboration with subcontractors PFP Cybersecurity, Intelligent Automation (a BlueHalo Company), Signal Processing Technologies, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will leverage BAE Systems’ autonomy portfolio and build on the company’s work on DARPA’s Radio Frequency Machine Learning System (RFMLS) program.