The warfare potential of SRC’s Ghost Mantis: Weapon of the Week

[Ryan]

WHILE THE RACE TO SECURE THE AIR FORCE CONTRACT FOR THE COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT IS ONLY STARTING TO HEAT UP BETWEEN GENERAL ATOMICS AND ANDURIL, THERE IS ANOTHER RACE BEING RUN.

THAT’S A METAPHORICAL SPRINT AMONG A HOST OF SMALLER CONTRACTORS LOOKING TO GET THEIR TECH ON BOARD WHATEVER PLATFORM THE AIR FORCE ULTIMATELY CHOOSES.

ONE OF THOSE COMPANIES IS S-R-C, A NOT-FOR-PROFIT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FIRM THAT’S HOPING ONE OF THEIR LATEST PROJECTS WILL MAKE THE CUT. IT’S CALLED THE GHOST MANTIS AND IT’S OUR WEAPON OF THE WEEK.

WITH A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO LOOKING LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF THE LATEST FPV VIDEO GAME, S-R-C’S GHOST MANTIS MAKES AN IMPRESSION. TUCKED INSIDE THE NOSE OF A CCA MOCK-UP TEAMED WITH AN F-35 AND F-15, THE MULTI-FUNCTION R-F SYSTEM GOES TO WORK.

Dave Toomey]
“So the first thing is, all these platforms, both red platforms and blue platforms, their platforms and our platforms, all have sensors on them, right? And those sensors listen to the battlefield, right and try to make sense of what’s going on in electromagnetic spectrum, right? So if we can get inside of those sensors, and we can cause confusion in those sensors. We can cause the adversaries situational awareness to degrade, and we can start to force them to expose vulnerabilities, and then we can exploit and that’s really the goal.”

[Ryan]
RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL DAVE TOOMEY IS S-R-C’S ASSISTANT V-P FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. HE SAYS THE COMPANY LISTENED TO WHAT AIR FORCE LEADERSHIP WANTS FROM A COST AND PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVE WHEN DEVELOPING THE GHOST MANTIS.

[Dave Toomey]
“So we took a step back and say, how do we give them single-digit million capability that can be game-changing to keep these platforms affordable? Because the problem has been in the past. We started with attritable platforms. They got gold plated and nobody could afford them. So we said, we’re not going to go down that path. We’re going to make it affordable, and we’re going to make it so anybody else can take advantage of the technology and not lock it down.”

[RYAN]
TOOMEY WENT ON TO TELL US WHILE THE PRIMARY GOAL IS TO GET ON BOARD THE CCA, IT’S NOT S-R-C’S ONLY TARGET.

[Dave Toomey]
“So Ghost Mantis is focused on the US market and the international market, mainly five eyes. The platform will fly at the end of this calendar year, and it’ll go into more flight tests next year. And so we’ve got customers that we’re talking to on both sides, multiple different platforms.”

[Ryan]
AND NOT JUST WINGED PLATFORMS. S-R-C HAS ALSO EXPLORED PUTTING GHOST MANTIS ON DRONES THE SIZE OF WHAT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT HAS ACQUIRED FOR ITS REPLICATOR INITIATIVE.

NO WORD YET FROM S-R-C ON ANY CONFIRMED BUYERS.