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European weapons specialist MBDA has made significant progress in developing its Orchestrike collaborative weapons artificial intelligence (AI) concept since its introduction last year at the Paris Air Show. At Farnborough, the company announced that it will initially apply this technology to its Spear family of precision strike weapons and is demonstrating the new capability in a digital-twin simulator.
Spear weapons offer advanced mission planning and long-range complex multi-weapon mission capabilities similar to those found in the latest heavy cruise missiles but are packaged into a weapon that can be carried in substantial numbers by multirole fighters. The F-35, for instance, can accommodate up to eight in its internal weapon bays. The Spear can strike moving targets in all weather conditions and at long stand-off ranges, making it an ideal defense suppression weapon.
Orchestrike enhances the Spear’s performance and capabilities by adding AI-driven coordination and cooperation between multiple missiles and the launch aircraft. The inherent AI features allow the missiles and pilot to collaboratively react to threats and solve tactical challenges—such as reassigning priority targets if missiles are intercepted—thereby improving the survivability of both missiles and launch platform, as well as overall mission success rates. At all times, the weapons operate only within the boundaries of human operator input.
