SPARC AI has tested its Overwatch system near Ukraine’s front line under GPS jamming conditions. During the demonstration, a drone was able to determine its own position and target coordinates without satellite navigation.
After a series of demonstrations for drone manufacturers and operators, the SPARC AI team travelled to military test ranges and then to within about 17 km of the front line. There, Overwatch was integrated into a large quadcopter and used during several flights in a GPS-jammed environment.
The system received telemetry from the drone and returned its latitude and longitude within milliseconds. According to the company, the process required no computing or software on board the drone.
During one demonstration, the drone determined the coordinates of a pole located more than 600 meters away without GPS, a laser rangefinder or additional hardware on the aircraft.
SPARC AI also demonstrated Overwatch Intelligence, a module designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in GPS-denied conditions. It allows operators to obtain target coordinates directly from imagery captured by the drone. An operator can select any pixel in an image and receive the coordinates of the corresponding point.
The company also tested Overwatch Patrol, a positioning system for military personnel operating without GPS. In one demonstration, satellite-based positioning placed the user several kilometers away from their actual location due to interference, while Overwatch Patrol displayed the correct position without GPS or additional hardware.
According to SPARC AI, following the demonstrations, the company is engaged with several drone manufacturers on existing and new projects. These include extending Overwatch’s capabilities to unmanned ground vehicles and fixed-wing aircraft.
The company is also in the process of obtaining a NATO Stock Number (NSN) for Overwatch, which would allow the system to be catalogued and procured through NATO and allied defense supply systems.
