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The enhanced Export Opportunities service for UK companies will be showcased on GREAT.gov.uk by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox.

Dstl is taking part in Autonomous Warrior 18, an exercise being run by the Royal Australian Navy and its Defence Science Technology (DST) Group which builds on the success of the UK’s Unmanned Warrior in 2016.

Scientists, military and industry representatives from Australia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand and Canada, have come together to address The Technical Co-operation Partnership (TTCP) Autonomy Strategic Challenge, and will be demonstrating the Command and Control of a mixed fleet of unmanned systems covering air, ground, sea surface and underwater vehicles. The aim will be to use the unmanned systems to conduct military and constabulary operations, such as: arms smuggling; mine countermeasures; wide area situation awareness and base protection.

If unmanned systems are to be adopted in the numbers that many anticipate, it will be necessary to change the way they operate. Current systems tend to require at least one person to control them via a bespoke control station, therefore requiring ever-increasing resource. The Research Programme is looking to develop and understand how to establish appropriate higher-level Command and Control of multiple systems, with digital messaging and autonomous unmanned vehicle behaviours, thereby demonstrating a transition from the current operation of unmanned systems.

Dstl is at the cutting-edge of developing maritime autonomous systems and will be contributing three components into this exercise, two of which had a significant role in Unmanned Warrior 16:

Maritime Autonomous Platform Exploitation (MAPLE) is a looking at the high-level Command and Control that enables the autonomous co-ordination of squads of unmanned systems to conduct military tasks. Built as applications that run on an open architecture variant of the Royal Navy’s combat management system, (think of the apps on a modern mobile phone), MAPLE has been designed to enable unmanned vehicle sourced data to be integrated into a ship’s tactical picture display.

Dstl’s Maritime Autonomy Surface Tested (MAST) is a unique UK-designed-and-built vessel capable of reaching high speeds while navigating around the oceans. (sensing other vessels in the immediate vicinity and avoiding them in a safe manner). Various levels of automation can be utilised, from basic remote control up to autonomous route planning and navigation. It is used to test and evaluate new technologies and all aspects of Unmanned Service Vehicle (USV) operation.

Configurable Operating Model Policy Automation Control of Task (COMPACT) is an autonomous policy management tool for unmanned systems in complex, dynamic, environments, which enables the safe operation of autonomous systems in an environment that has both manned and unmanned assets.

Ian Campbell, Technical Partner for MAST, said:

The MAST project is developing an intelligent unmanned surface vehicle (USV) system to understand how these potentially disruptive systems may be best exploited and identify new tactics, techniques and procedures . A key part of the project now is to offer the system as a testbed to allow military users, other government departments, industry and academia to test and evaluate technologies and the use of USV systems in a real-world context.

Matt Wilkinson, Dstl’s project manager for MAST and for MAPLE, said:

Autonomous Warrior 18 aims to increase our understanding of autonomous operations, in order to develop our tactics in this area. It’s essential that we maintain the UK’s capability in this area, as well as exploit the innovations being developed.

People may no longer need to take an entire day off work to attend court and those with caring responsibilities could find it easier to fit in hearings at the beginning or end of a day.

The pilot has been announced by the government today (16 November 2018) following feedback from legal professionals across the country. As a result of this feedback, flexible operating hours are not being piloted in criminal courts.

Two courts in Manchester and Brentford will run the pilots for six months, testing whether civil and family buildings can be used more effectively; the benefits of making it possible for people to attend court outside of the traditional 10am – 4pm sitting day; and what more flexibility means for staff and legal professionals.

Justice Minister, Lucy Frazer said:

We want to make our courts and tribunals more accessible to the public. This pilot assesses whether and how we can give people greater flexibility in their busy lives.

We listened carefully to the views of legal professionals and others before going ahead, and as a result flexible operating hours are not being piloted in criminal courts. We will now test different options relating to operating hours in two civil and family courts and an independent evaluation will be carried out before any decisions are made about further roll-out.

The Government is investing more than £1bn to reform courts and tribunals with the aim of making it as simple and straightforward as possible for people who come into contact with the justice system.

In October 2017, a Pilots Prospectus was published which sought feedback on proposals for early and late court sittings before the pilots began.

Case types proposed for inclusion in the pilots announced today were chosen following input from the legal sector and local judiciary, and views of court users and professionals will be taken in to account in the evaluation. A full evaluation will be conducted by an independent organisation.

1. HMCTS has established cross-agency Local Implementation Teams in Brentford and Manchester who will be responsible for overseeing the detailed planning in each pilot site.
2. Pilots are expected to begin in spring next year.

Early and late sittings will be piloted in civil and family courts, giving people greater access to hearings that can fit around their busy lives.