BAE Systems Signs Contract with SeeByte to Develop Solutions for Autonomous Maritime Operations

BAE Systems and SeeByte Ltd of Edinburgh, Scotland have signed a Co-operation Agreement to pursue business opportunities associated with the UK’s Mine Counter Measure (MCM), Hydrography and Patrol Capability (MHPC) Programme.

BAE Systems Mission Systems and SeeByte have identified a shared vision for the managed introduction of autonomous computing into future military mission systems through the exploitation of ‘open‘ or modular, yet secure, architectures. Thus they intend to work together to develop fully integrated MCM mission systems offering innovative, flexible and adaptable solutions for the adoption of unmanned systems into future MCM operations.

These will be designed to minimise human operator load whilst providing maximum operational support to the Command Team. The systems will combine vehicle agnostic UUV Mission Management capability with the complex Mission Planning, Situational Awareness, Battlespace Information Integration and Combat Decision Aids required in modern Naval Operations.

David Leitch, Naval Command Information Systems Director, BAE Systems said “The relationship we have established with SeeByte is a clear example of our continued commitment to developing novel and innovative solutions to meet our customers challenges. By working closely with SME organisations such as SeeByte, we are ensuring that the latest specialist techniques and technologies can be rapidly integrated to provide coherent Naval Command and Information Systems that deliver immediate benefit to the users.”

Bob Black, CEO of SeeByte commented “We are pleased to be working with BAE Systems to jointly drive forward the future of integrated autonomous systems in the Maritime Combat & Mission Systems. SeeTrack Military is now the MCM planning and processing tool of choice for twelve of the world’s navies and our focus has always been to deliver an operational tool suited to the needs of the war-fighter.

As the principle Naval Systems integrator and Command System supplier to the Royal Navy, BAE Systems is undertaking a number of private venture funded activities into the application of autonomous systems into the Maritime Domain.

SeeByte has a reputation of global excellence in the development and application of Autonomous Vehicle control software in the offshore, military and transportation sectors. SeeByte’s SeeTrack Military software is an open-architecture platform solution for rapid on-site analysis and data fusion that can be easily adapted for specific users needs. Developed as a mission-planning, monitoring and post-processing tool, this software technology has been successfully deployed on numerous surveys, military and security operations and scientific experiments. It is also easily integrated to allow data export into other tactical software.
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Source: seebyte, July 11, 2011