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Germany's largest defense company Rheinmetall is working with a U.S. software specialist to develop common operating standards to regulate autonomous battlefield drones, a move that guarantees to shake up the fast-evolving industry.
As a part of the partnership, Rheinmetall will integrate its drones with software from Virginia-based Auterion to construct a military-wide system.
“With a general shift from manned to unmanned systems, it’s crucial that the autonomous systems can communicate with one another,” said Lorenz Meier, managing director of Auterion, whose software is already utilized by drones in Ukraine.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago accelerated the event of drones and other autonomous systems, resulting in what the industry calls “software-defined” warfare that mixes precision with scale. In order for these systems to proliferate and work together, a typical operating standard is required.
Auterion's operating system would allow the “customer to unite all drones on a typical basis and integrate different manufacturers into a typical architecture,” said Meier.
Since greater than “2 hundred different unmanned aerial systems” are in use in Ukraine, “military training may be very expensive and time-consuming and the interoperability of the systems isn’t guaranteed,” said Timo Haas, Chief Digital Officer of Rheinmetall.
The “development of a homogeneous operating system will enable the efficient and scalable deployment of unmanned systems,” he added.
Auterion, together with other corporations, is already a part of a US Department of Defense initiative to develop an open source standard for autonomous systems. The company hopes the partnership with Rheinmetall will help promote an identical approach amongst NATO allies.
If “every country in NATO has its own standard for drone communications, NATO wouldn’t have the ability to fight together,” said Meier, who sees the partnership with Rheinmetall as a vital evolutionary step within the defense industry.
Rheinmetall, a maker of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in addition to combat drones, has emerged as one among the large corporate winners from the war in Ukraine and increased defense spending by European governments.
Armin Papperger, the corporate's CEO, has been vocal concerning the impact that artificial intelligence can have on warfare. He told the Financial Times in October that soldiers would increasingly depend on AI to make the “right decision.”
“An example: you’ve five different tanks in your side and 20 on the enemy side and the AI gives you the data which of your tanks is best positioned to hit the enemy and which enemy you must fight against.”
