Proactive Investors - BAE Systems PLC has unveiled a strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp aiming to support faster and easier development, deployment and management of digital defence capabilities.
The collaboration brings together BAE Systems’ knowledge of building complex digital systems for militaries and governments with Microsoft’s approach to developing applications using its Azure Cloud platform.
Modern fighter jets, for example, can require up to 24 million lines of code to function effectively, so using the cloud to deploy updates could make the process quicker giving a competitive advantage over adversaries.
The new technology paves the way for on-the-fly software updates to fighter jets, warships such as the Type 26 frigate and battlefield drones meaning battlefield threats could be eliminated faster than ever before.
In trials driven by the partnership new software has been deployed in-flight to military surveillance drones, paving the way for the tech to be used on manned fighters such as the Typhoon.
BAE’s chief technical officer Julian Cracknell said rapid updates to battlefield technology were proving decisive in the ongoing war in Ukraine.