Low-cost attritable aircraft modified with adaptive suites

A system for modifying low-cost attritable aircraft (LCAA) to facilitate imparting maneuvering, performance, and operations capabilities to aircraft, the LCAA comprising aircraft capable of or modified to facilitate operating in one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous configurations, the system comprising:

• an adaptive suite of hardware, software and/or firmware that is integrated with LCAA subsystems of the LCAA converting the LCAA into a modified low-cost attritable aircraft (MLCAA) having maneuvering, performance, and operations capabilities that the aircraft as originally engineered or manufactured did not possess, the adaptive suite including
• one or more computer processing subsystems,
• data acquisition systems that provide processed telemetry and image data to the one or more computer processing subsystems,
• network subsystems facilitating network integration with tactical edge and other networks and communications between the MLCAA and other aircraft, and
• one or more selective control and/or selective stabilization subsystems;
• wherein the maneuvering, performance, and operations capabilities include
• participating in maneuver warfare and/or swarming aircraft missions with a plurality of other MLCAAs and/or other aircraft operating in one or more autonomous and/or crewed configurations inclusive of collaboratively performing maneuver warfare and/or swarming maneuvers that human pilots are incapable of controlling and/or flying the MLCAAs to perform, and/or
• one or more of
• functioning as a fully or partially functional aerial refueling (AR) platform configured to participate in one or more aerial refueling training or operational missions, and/or
• functioning as a training vehicle for providing trainees with aerial refueling (AR) training by controlling components of the adaptive suite in using the modified low-cost attritable aircraft to provide refueling presentations to receiver aircraft;
• wherein the adaptive suite is configured to implement, responsive to telemetry and other inputs, a decision management scheme that provides command and control decisions in relation to utilizing the one or more selective control and/or selective stabilization subsystems to enable the maneuvering, performance, and operations capabilities based on pre-scripted maneuvers and/or patterns of maneuvers.

A low-cost attritable (LCA) multirole platform comprising:

• a low-cost attritable aircraft (LCAA) modified by and integrated with an adaptive suite configured to impart to the LCAA capabilities that the LCAA as originally engineered or manufactured did not possess, the capabilities including multirole capabilities, crewed and/or uncrewed flight capabilities, and improved network and/or communications capabilities, transforming the LCAA into a modified low-cost attritable aircraft (MLCAA),
• the adaptive suite being configured
• to facilitate imparting maneuvering, performance, and operations capabilities to LCAAs in providing MLCAAs,
• thereby removing tactics and mission limits that $50,000,000+ crewed and uncrewed aircraft suffer, the tactics and mission limits including severe intrinsic tactical limits caused by the unacceptable nature of the loss of valuable and difficult to replace aircraft and/or pilot,
• whereas the MLCAA, in contrast—due to being unmanned, low-cost, and with replacements readily available—are not tactics or mission limited and, moreover, are capable of and suitable for use in performing
• a vast plurality of heretofore unavailable medium-risk and high-risk tactics and missions, including
• swarming tactics and missions that carry a high risk of loss due to the possibility of midair collisions;
• and
• wherein the adaptive suite is integrated with multiple LCAA subsystems, imparting to the LCAA additional maneuvering, performance, and operational capabilities;
• wherein the adaptive suite is configured to provide or facilitate
• integration of the LCAA subsystems as well as additional mission systems, sensor systems, weapons systems, and other systems that facilitate multirole operational capabilities,
• integration of telemetry subsystems that acquire, process, and manage telemetry data, integration of computer vision subsystems that acquire, process, and manage computer vision data, and
• integration of subsystems for carriage, management, and employment of weapons systems,
• imparting to the LCAA improved and resilient network and/or communications capabilities enabling participation in one or more networks,
• imparting to the LCAA selectively autonomous, semi-autonomous, remotely piloted uncrewed, and optional crewed flight capabilities, and
• imparting to the LCAA tactical operations capabilities including swarming capabilities;
• wherein the adaptive suite comprises and/or is configured to utilize onboard and/or offboard AI/ML software/computer systems comprising one or more of
• secure networking and communications systems comprising one or more distributed application software and/or distributed systems that facilitate near-real-time, or as network and/or system latencies allow, ongoing collaboration with pilots and other personnel,
• AI/ML in situ and/or distributed computer vision application software,
• AI/ML in situ and/or distributed mission support and/or mission systems application software, and
• AI/ML in situ and/or distributed decision-support application software, and/or other AI/ML in situ and/or distributed application software systems.

A low-cost attritable (LCA) multirole platform comprising:

• a low-cost attritable aircraft (LCAA) modified by and integrated with an adaptive suite configured to impart to the LCAA capabilities including
• Aerial Refueling (AR) tanker capabilities,
• AR tanker presentations and operations capabilities that emulate large legacy tankers sufficiently to satisfy pilot AR training and AR training certification requirements for one or more specific large legacy AR tankers,
• Automatic Aerial Refueling (AAR) tanker capabilities to provide autonomous-to-autonomous AAR, providing safe and effective aerial refueling with no human control of the LCAA AAR tanker and no human control of the AAR receiver, and/or
• Automatic Aerial Refueling (AAR) tanker and receiver capabilities to satisfy AI/ML system AR training and AAR Verification and Validation (V&V) requirements for specific AI/ML systems;
• wherein the adaptive suite is integrated with multiple LCAA subsystems, imparting to the LCAA additional maneuvering, performance, and operational capabilities;
• wherein the adaptive suite is configured to provide or facilitate
• integration of the LCAA subsystems as well as additional mission systems, sensor systems, telemetry systems, computer vision systems, decision-support systems, and/or network and communications systems,
• integration of subsystems for carriage, integration, management, and operations of Aerial Refueling (AR) tanker systems, imparting to the LCAA AR operations, training, and/or training certifications capabilities enabling the LCAA to serve as a training or operational tanker,
• integration of subsystems for carriage, integration, management, and operations of telemetry subsystems and telemetry AI/ML subsystems that acquire, process, and manage telemetry data that is utilized by the SAAR systems and MLCAA to provide safe and effective aerial refueling with or without human control of the LCAA AAR tanker and no human control of the AAR receiver, and/or
• integration of subsystems for carriage, integration, management, and operations of computer vision and computer vision AI/ML subsystems that acquire, process, and manage computer vision data that is utilized by the SAAR systems and MLCAA to provide safe and effective aerial refueling with or without human control of the LCAA AAR tanker and no human control of the AAR receiver.

A system for modifying low-cost attritable aircraft (LCAA), resulting in a modified LCAA (MLCAA) to perform missions for which the LCAA was not originally engineered or manufactured, the system including a legacy tanker (LT) aerial refueling simulation and training system (LT-AR-ST), the system comprising an adaptive suite comprising:

• one or more computer processing and data storage systems including
• MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems,
• MLCAA telemetry processing and decision-support systems, and
• MLCAA aircraft systems and mission data processing and decision-support systems
• that provide processed data to the MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems;
• one or more AU/ML software and/or firmware systems;
• one or more modified and/or replacement LCAA avionics systems;
• one or more telemetry acquisition systems that provide telemetry data from one or more onboard and/or offboard telemetry acquisition sensors to the MLCAA telemetry processing and decision-support systems;
• aircraft systems and mission systems data acquisition systems that provide systems and mission data from one or more onboard and/or offboard aircraft systems and mission systems to the MLCAA aircraft systems and mission data processing and decision-support systems;
• MLCAA communications, datalink, software-defined network (SDN), and other network systems that provide data to/from other MLCAAs, other aircraft, other vehicles, and other non-vehicular communications, datalink, software-defined network (SDN), and other network systems that provide communications and data to the MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems;
• and
• a legacy tanker (LT) aerial refueling simulation and training system (LT-AR-ST) that
• utilizes the current telemetry data set of an MLCAA and MLCAA Aerial Refueling Systems (ARS) (MLCAA-ARS), acquired in near-real-time, and
• compares the current near-real-time MLCAA and MLCAA-ARS telemetry data set to a correlated stored telemetry data set of one or more desired LT and LT-ARSs thereof,
• identifies and quantifies differences between measured current and desired performance of the MLCAA and the MLCAA ARS, mimicking known behaviors of the LT and the LT-ARS, respectively, and
• provides commands to control performances of the MLCAA and the MLCAA-ARS to modify, adjust, adapt, and/or conform performances of the MLCAA and the MLCAA-ARS to mimic desired behaviors of the one or more LTs and LT ARSs.

A system for modifying low-cost attritable aircraft (LCAA), resulting in a modified LCAA (MLCAA) to perform missions for which the LCAA was not originally engineered or manufactured, the system including an autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) system and AAR training (AART) system, the system comprising an adaptive suite comprising:

• one or more computer processing and data storage systems including,
• MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems,
• MLCAA telemetry processing and decision-support systems, and
• MLCAA aircraft systems and mission data processing and decision-support systems
• that provide processed data to the MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems;
• one or more AI/ML software and/or firmware systems;
• one or more modified and/or replacement LCAA avionics systems;
• one or more telemetry acquisition systems that provide telemetry data from one or more onboard and/or offboard telemetry acquisition sensors to the MLCAA telemetry processing and decision-support systems;
• aircraft systems and mission systems data acquisition systems that provide systems and mission data from one or more onboard and/or offboard aircraft systems and mission systems to the MLCAA aircraft systems and mission data processing and decision-support systems;
• MLCAA communications, datalink, software-defined network (SDN), and other network systems that provide data to/from other MLCAAs, other aircraft, other vehicles, and other non-vehicular communications, datalink, software-defined network (SDN), and other network systems that provide communications and data to the MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems;
• and
• an autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) system and an AAR training (AART) system that utilize telemetry data acquired in near-real-time from an uncrewed MLCAA AR Tanker, uncrewed AR Receiver(s), and Aerial Refueling Systems (ARS) of the uncrewed MLCAA AR Tanker and the uncrewed AR Receiver(s), respectively, and compares the telemetry data to desired performance data of the uncrewed MLCAA AR Tanker, the Tanker ARS, the uncrewed AR Receiver(s), and the Receiver(s) ARSs to identify and quantify differences between actual and desired performance, and provides commands to control performances of the uncrewed MLCAA AR Tanker, the Tanker ARS, the uncrewed AR Receiver(s), and the Receiver(s) ARSs to modify, adjust, adapt, and/or conform the performances to desired behaviors required for safe and effective AAR and AAR training and certification.

A system for modifying low-cost attritable aircraft (LCAA), resulting in a modified LCAA (MLCAA) to perform missions for which the LCAA was not originally engineered or manufactured, the missions including single-ship or multi-ship uncrewed MLCAA(s) missions, the system comprising an adaptive suite comprising:

• one or more computer processing and data storage systems including
• MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems,
• MLCAA telemetry processing and decision-support systems, and
• MLCAA aircraft systems and mission data processing and decision-support systems
• that provide processed data to the MLCAA aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems;
• one or more AI/ML software and/or firmware systems;
• one or more modified and/or replacement LCAA avionics systems;
• one or more telemetry acquisition systems that provide telemetry data from one or more onboard and/or offboard telemetry acquisition sensors to the MLCAA telemetry processing and decision-support systems;
• aircraft systems and mission systems data acquisition systems that provide systems and mission data from one or more onboard and/or offboard aircraft systems and mission systems to the MLCAA aircraft systems and mission data processing and decision-support systems;
• an MLCAA communications, datalink, software-defined network (SDN), and other network systems that provide data to/from other MLCAAs, other aircraft, other vehicles, and other non-vehicular communications, datalink, software-defined network (SDN), and other network systems that provide communications and data to the MLCAA adaptive suite's aircraft flying and mission systems operating systems;
• and
• an autonomous flight and tactical operations (AFTO) control system for single-ship or multi-ship uncrewed modified low-cost attritable aircraft (MLCAA) that are uncrewed by human pilots physically onboard any of the MLCAA(s), the AFTO control system utilizes acquired MLCAA telemetry data sets and compares the data sets to desired single-ship or multi-ship uncrewed MLCAA performance data sets to identify and quantify differences in order to direct commands onboard and/or offboard to control performances of the single-ship or multi-ship uncrewed MLCAA(s) to modify, adjust, adapt, and/or conform the performances to desired behaviors required for safe and effective single-ship or multi-ship uncrewed MLCAA executing:
• fighter tactics-techniques-procedures (TTP),
• fighter sensors employment,
• swarm sensor employment,
• fighter intercepts,
• swarm intercepts,
• target identification friend or foe,
• swarm target identification friend or foe,
• fighter weapons employment,
• swarm fighter weapons employment,
• swarming fighter combat, and/or
• other fighter, fighter weapons, attack, intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR), sea surface search, maritime defense, antisubmarine warfare, antisatellite warfare, missile defense, and/or other peacetime or combat missions.