Kristen Smith 
Parry Labs has integrated its Edge Compute Micro hardware onto the Kratos BQM-177A target drone under a partnership with Shield AI, supporting the U.S. Navy’s Experimental Platform for Intelligent Combat project, which aims to mature manned-unmanned teaming, or MUM-T, capabilities through advanced mission autonomy.
How Is EC Micro Enabling Manned-Unmanned Teaming?
EC Micro underwent flight tests, including a trial event at Point Mugu, California, demonstrating capabilities that enable MUM-T and real-time decision-making on board the BQM-177A, Parry Labs said on Tuesday. Designed to be platform-agnostic, the system provides compute infrastructure for autonomous workloads, particularly in resource-constrained environments where minimizing size, weight, power and cost are essential.
“With the EC Micro, we are bringing next-generation compute power directly to the edge,” said Parry Labs Chief Technology Officer Dave Walsh, noting that the “open, scalable technology accelerates mission success for the fleet.”
Shield AI served as the systems integrator for the August tests on the BQM-177A, meant to generate insights that could guide the Navy’s future collaborative combat aircraft concepts. The target drone used Shield AI’s Hivemind artificial intelligence-enabled autonomy software.
The deployment of the EC Micro expands Parry Labs’ record of integrating edge compute across various platforms, including the MQM-178A Firejet and the XQ-58A Valkyrie. It also followed a strategic collaboration between Parry Labs and Shield AI, formalized in a memorandum of understanding signed in October. The integration of Hivemind into Parry Labs’ STRATIA platform, Virtual Integration Workspace and edge-compute hardware will be performed through the partnership to enhance battlefield interoperability, mission speed and resilience.
