BAE Systems Wins $79 Million DARPA Insight Programme Contract

BAE Systems has won a $79 million contract to work on phase two of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Insight programme.

The contract allows the company to mature the Insight system by adding capabilities to integrate information from space, air, sea, and ground sensors, human reports and intelligence repositories.

The programme aims to develop an integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system that will enable analysts to meaningfully integrate disparate 'stovepiped' source information into a unified picture of the battlefield.

BAE Systems Technology Solutions vice-president and general manager David Logan said the company has invested in development of a portfolio of sensor data processing and exploitation systems to provide usable intelligence and intuitive, easy-to-use sensor controls to analysts.

''We are able to capitalise on the core technologies we've developed for other intelligence programmes, including multi-sensor fusion, reasoning algorithms and automatic resource tasking, while advancing our expertise in this area,'' Logan said.

BAE's phase two team includes Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, SAIC, Charles River Analytics, Intific, Aptima, HF Designworks, as well as PatchPlus Consulting.

The company had developed an automatic / semi-automatic system for exploitation and resource management, as well as sensor models for testing the Insight system under a broad range of operational conditions during the first phase of the programme, which was focused on supporting tactical brigades and battalions in irregular warfare missions.

Specifically, the Insight programme seeks to develop automated behavioural learning and prediction algorithms that will enable analysts to use huge volumes of intelligence-rich information for discovery and identification of threats, and also make and confirm hypotheses about their potential behaviour.

The system will also be designed to automatically manage sensor tasking for unprecedented seamless tracking abilities.