Highlights
Additive Manufacturing at Sea →
Sailors aboard the USS Bataan turned the additive manufacturing at sea concept into reality after successfully fabricating and installing a stainless steel sprayer plate to repair the USS Bataan’s ballasting system. The machinists used a hybrid manufacturing system that was developed and installed on the ship with support from APL and Naval Sea Systems Command, allowing the ship to avoid costly repairs and resume operations.
BAS/CS™ →
Cyberattacks on industrial control systems—which power essential services like electricity, water, and transportation—are on the rise. In recent years, cyber threats targeting infrastructure have increased significantly. APL developed an advanced cybersecurity solution to detect real threats while reducing false alarms.
DART →
APL envisioned, built, and successfully demonstrated NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration, which proved the capability of a kinetic impactor to deflect an asteroid. This revolutionary low-cost spacecraft used APL-developed and modified air and missile defense algorithms to autonomously target and intercept an asteroid almost 7 million miles from Earth, changing its orbit period by 32 minutes, and providing humanity with a proven solution for planetary defense.
Tomahawk
The Navy came to APL to ensure that the then-new Tomahawk long-range cruise missile could navigate itself through heavily defended environments and strike specific targets, and APL engineers applied terrain contour matching (TERCOM) technology to enable this capability. When even greater accuracy was needed, APL developed the performance prediction algorithms needed to apply digital scene matching area correlator (DSMAC) technology. Tomahawk—enabled by TERCOM and DSMAC—became the world’s first long-range, autonomous, precision-guided weapon, and remains one of the most accurate and effective strike weapons in the U.S. arsenal. In an era of GPS-denied environments, the un-jammable TERCOM and DSMAC systems remain operational on Tomahawk for use when GPS is not available.
Cislunar Science and Technology →
APL is making critical contributions to the development of cislunar infrastructure to ensure our nation’s security interests are protected, support development of a sustainable cislunar presence, and advance pioneering science.
AI-Piloted Aviation
As part of DARPA’s ACE program, APL has developed infrastructure and autonomous solutions, including constructive simulation environments, virtual aircraft simulators, live subscale aircraft, and the interfaces required to integrate performer and APL autonomy solutions into full-scale tactical fighter aircraft.
Runtime Safety Assurance for AFWERX Autonomy Prime
Quickly and safely testing autonomous vehicles in complex, interactive environments
Tactical Behaviors for Autonomous Maneuver
Enabling scalable, real-time solutions for autonomous teams
Full Scene Extraction
Training robots to gather information about their surroundings to create a contextual understanding of their environment
ConceptGraphs
Transforming robots into capable teammates using generative AI and advanced scene mapping
Accelerating Materials Innovation for Defense
Developing a novel materials science paradigm—and strategically applying artificial intelligence and robotics—to dramatically accelerate the process of designing, testing, and optimizing metal components for the defense industrial base
Reloading Vertical Launching Systems at Sea
APL is addressing one of the Navy’s most persistent logistical challenges: reloading vertical launching systems at sea.
Enhancing Naval Readiness with Onboard 3D Printing Solutions
Implementing onboard 3D printing systems to enable ships to produce essential parts at sea, thereby enhancing operational readiness and reducing maintenance delays
Shape-Shifting Antenna for Adaptive Communications
By leveraging cutting-edge additive manufacturing techniques and shape memory alloys, APL researchers have created an antenna that can change its shape based on its temperature.
AI/AR-Guided Electronic Repair
Combining artificial intelligence and augmented reality to troubleshoot and maintain complex systems
GenWar Sim
Integrating large language models with AFSIM—making high-fidelity simulations accessible to users through natural language interaction
PExT
PExT is a first-of-its-kind wideband multilingual terminal allowing satellites to communicate across the broad range of networks and frequencies used by both commercial and government providers.