Lockheed Martin's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Airspace Management System (UAMS) solved one of the more difficult challenges facing military services and their industry partners by successfully demonstrating the ability to deconflict groups of in-flight UAVs during a test near Pittsburgh, PA.

Sponsored by the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, a team lead by Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) developed UAMS as a battalion echelon system that deconflicts flight paths of multiple, small UAVs with limited on-board sensors, communications and processing resources.

UAMS also uses its own on-board sensors to "see-and-avoid" obstacles and other aircraft.

"The successful use of UAMS on in-flight UAVs caps three years of program development," said David Van Brackle, ATL's UAMS project manager. "Our work will improve safety and mission success for future UAV systems and for the Warfighters who depend upon them."