-
Royal Navy warship shoots down swarms of drones in live-fire exercise
03 Apr 2025
-
QinetiQ receives key defence approvals to enhance aircraft design and production
31 Mar 2025
-
QinetiQ awarded $47m contract to strengthen defence aviation safety
24 Mar 2025
-
QinetiQ Group plc FY25 Fourth Quarter Trading Update
17 Mar 2025
-
QinetiQ demonstrates Australian-first laser technology to enhance sovereign defence capabilities
12 Mar 2025
QinetiQ leads next phase of unmanned systems exploitation
16/08/2017
The MAPLE project, spearheaded by QinetiQ in partnership with BAE Systems, SeeByte and Thales, seeks to demonstrate and de-risk the integration of multiple Unmanned Systems into the combat system of a Royal Navy warship.
In MAPLE phase three, QinetiQ, with its partners, led the development and build of a technology demonstrator called Autonomous Control Exploitation Realisation (ACER), a deployable prototype which is based on Dstl’s Open Architecture Combat System (OACS). ACER provides the means by which the output of MAPLE work can be effectively demonstrated in a variety of situations. Phase four will continue to evolve this design, validate its architecture and extend it to include communications. Advances in capability will be demonstrated through a series of synthetic experiments at QinetiQ’s Portsdown site and a number of live exercises.
The project will build on the success of Unmanned Warrior 2016, which saw the successful integration of data sourced from 25 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles from 12 organisations through ACER.
Stuart Hider, QinetiQ’s Director Maritime Programmes, said: “Through effective collaboration we are building on the ACER system’s success at Unmanned Warrior. MAPLE is a key project in unlocking the huge potential of unmanned vehicles and autonomous systems to safeguard sovereign interests.”
Speaking at the recent Royal Navy Maritime Autonomous Systems Conference held in early May at QinetiQ Haslar, Dr Philip Smith, Above Water Systems Programme Manager, Dstl, said: “It is the Royal Navy’s intention to lead and win through the innovative and robust exploitation of maritime autonomous systems. The MAPLE work is the route by which this vision is turned into reality.”