Building on the success of Phase 1, funding has been awarded to four successful applicants who will be adopting PYRAMID on their products, growing the PYRAMID supplier base and providing valuable feedback to MOD and other users.

Leave a reply. UK funds PYRAMID open avionics push for drones, swarms and GCAP. 5 hours ago The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is set to widen its adoption of open avionics architecture, with UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) awarding more than £2 million to four companies that will build the PYRAMID standard into uncrewed aircraft and mission systems. Announced on June 25, 2026, the Phase 2 competition was run on behalf of the Royal Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. It follows an earlier round credited by the MOD with expanding the pool of suppliers offering PYRAMID-compliant products. What PYRAMID is for. PYRAMID is a UK MOD initiative to develop modular avionics and mission systems built on a common open reference architecture, known as the PYRAMID Reference Architecture (PRA). The goal is to make software reusable across platforms and thus reduce the time and cost of adding capabilities across an aircraft's service life, covering both new designs and legacy fleets. Open architecture of this kind is intended to limit reliance on a single supplier, enabling operators to integrate subsystems from different vendors. Four winners, four use cases. Barnard Microsystems will apply the PRA to its all-electric AWAE-24 uncrewed aerial vehicle, with the aim of operating the drones individually or in groups, carrying the work over to longer-range and higher-speed designs. FLYBY Technology, founded by former fighter pilot weapons instructor Jon Parker, has announced that it is targeting the first use of the PYRAMID Reference Architecture on a flying combat platform. Auterion, working with Frazer-Nash Consultancy, will develop PYRAMID-compliant upgrades to Nemyx, its swarm autonomy platform, to show how the architecture can support swarming uncrewed systems. Transatlantic interoperability. Applied Intuition UK plans to demonstrate an airborne targeting chain compliant with both PYRAMID and the US FACE (Future Airborne Capability Environment) standard, the US open avionics software framework. The company noted that the dual compliance is aimed at future UK-US interoperability, positioning it as a supplier for programs including the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), the UK-Italy-Japan effort to field a sixth-generation fighter by 2035. Mike Lane, PYRAMID lead at the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office, said that Phase 1 had attracted UK and international partners and increased the number of suppliers delivering compliant products, describing UKDI's contribution as "a real asset to UK defence". The agency has said that it will keep advertising PYRAMID and related funding opportunities as the work continues.

TigerShark drone with a range of 1000 km and a load of up to 300 kg tested in Europe. British MGI Engineering Ltd (MGI) together with software developer Auterion has tested the TigerShark strike drone with a range of over 1,000 km. This was reported by Auterion. The company noted that this is the first time in over a decade that Europe has successfully tested a new system of this class, capable of reaching speeds of up to 750 km/h, operating effectively in the absence of GNSS (navigation satellite systems), carrying 300 kg and hitting targets at a distance of over 1,000 km. The platform has an open software-defined architecture, which allows for faster system deployment, upgrade of capabilities, and integration into various mission types. "Partnering with Auterion has allowed us to integrate world-class autonomous capabilities into a system designed from the ground up for flexibility and future growth," said MGI CEO Mike Gascoyne. Auterion emphasizes that TigerShark opens a new stage in the development of autonomous systems in Europe. "...we are enabling a new class of autonomous systems that can evolve at the pace of software," said James East, head of Auterion in the UK. Auterion says the TigerShark platform is designed to perform a variety of tasks from defense and security operations to complex autonomous missions, with an emphasis on flexibility and easy integration. It is also compatible with third-party hardware and software, giving operators more options for configuration and management. The image released before the release indicates that the TigerShark platform is powered by the Auterion Skynode solution. According to the manufacturer's website, the system is an on-board computer and autopilot that provides autonomous drone control, data processing and guidance, supports computer vision and allows missions to be carried out even in conditions of communication or satellite navigation jamming. It was previously reported that German Auterion, which develops software for autonomous drones, and Ukrainian drone manufacturer Airlogix announced the creation of a joint venture to produce AI-guided drones for Ukraine and its allies. Defense also wrote that last July, Auterion had a $50 million contract with the Pentagon to supply Ukraine with 33,000 Skynode AI modules for attack drones.