10 hours ago - Technology

AeroVironment and Applied team up on drone swarms

Colin Demarest

Illustration of a brain surrounded by circuits and glitchy shapes. — Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

AeroVironment and Applied Intuition are collaborating on unmanned machinery and autonomy, and recently tested the former's Mayhem 10 drone's ability to synchronize and swarm.

Why it matters: The two are well-established players in the defense and commercial markets.

Putting their heads together could produce something novel and — perhaps more importantly — super scalable.

The latest: At the core of the partnership, revealed this morning, are the Mayhem 10 and Applied's Acuity ISR/Strike software, which supports data-sharing, friendly teaming and targeting.

Zoom in: Mayhem is built on the back of AeroVironment's widely used Switchblade.

It can carry a 10-pound payload, operate at ranges greater than 62 miles, fly for more than 50 minutes, and be assembled and launched in less than five minutes, according to the company.

What they're saying: "Modern warfare demands trusted systems that can think, coordinate and adapt faster than the adversary," Jason Brown, general manager at Applied, said in a statement.

Follow the money: Applied was last summer valued at $15 billion.

Go deeper: The Pentagon's software-hardware tug of war

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AeroVironment and Applied team up on drone swarms

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