The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded more than 2 million pounds ($2.6 million) to four companies to accelerate the adoption of its PYRAMID open architecture for military avionics and mission systems.
The Phase 2 contracts, awarded through UK Defence Innovation, went to Barnard Microsystems, Applied Intuition UK, FLYBY Technology, and Auterion.
Each company will demonstrate how the PYRAMID Reference Architecture can be integrated into different air platforms and software applications, supporting London’s effort to make future and legacy aircraft easier to upgrade, more interoperable, and less costly to modernize.
Mike Lane, PYRAMID lead at the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, said the program’s first phase attracted support from UK and international partners while increasing the number of suppliers developing PYRAMID-compliant products.
Companies Demonstrate PYRAMID Applications
Each of the four contracts covers a different application of the PYRAMID architecture.
Barnard Microsystems will integrate the architecture into its All Electric AWAE-24 unmanned aerial vehicle. The work is intended to improve interoperability with systems from other suppliers while supporting future upgrades across the company’s medium- and long-range drones.
Applied Intuition UK, meanwhile, will demonstrate an airborne targeting chain that complies with both the UK’s PYRAMID Reference Architecture and the US Future Airborne Capability Environment standard.
For its part, FLYBY Technology will apply the architecture to a flying combat platform, aiming to show that software upgrades can be delivered more rapidly without requiring costly mid-life modernization programs.
Auterion, working with engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash, will adapt its Nemyx swarm autonomy platform to the PYRAMID architecture. The project will examine how open software standards can improve scalability and governance of autonomous drone swarms.
