MAG Aerospace partners with Zapata AI to deliver airborne surveillance platform

Zapata AI, a leader in AI solutions for large enterprises and the defense sector, announced the first commercial agreement of its partnership with MAG Aerospace. MAG is the leading independent defense contractor providing full-spectrum outsourced ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) services for manned and unmanned systems, and a full spectrum of multi-domain deep sensing capabilities, including cyber, electronic warfare, and tactical communications in theaters around the world. In the initial phase of the partnership, Zapata will build foundational elements of MAG’s next-generation integrated surveillance platform.

The Zapata and MAG teams will work to enable next-generation ISR relying upon advanced sensor fusion technology, bringing together airborne and ground-based sources, and a wide variety of signal and sensor types – such as radar, camera, SIGINT, LiDAR, and thermal imaging – powered by real-time data processing, correlation, image classification, and decisioning at the edge to automate target acquisition, identification, and tracking. The teams will also build reconfigurable software packages based on specific mission objectives, along with dynamic communications to optimize how information is collected, fused, and shared across contested networks. This integration represents a significant step forward in ISR capabilities, with significantly improved performance in enabling tactical decision superiority across any number of challenging operational environments.

“As the battle space becomes more digitized, Zapata’s ability to rapidly build and deliver AI solutions that deliver real-time situational awareness and decision support, including on the edge and in contested environments, is the unique value we deliver as a mission partner,” says Christopher Savoie, Zapata AI Co-founder & CEO. “The partnership with MAG showcases how Zapata’s innovative approach to AI can solve complex, real-world challenges, and we’ll help push the boundaries of what's possible for the next generation of airborne ISR, while helping MAG better serve its customers in achieving their mission objectives.”

Zapata AI will leverage its Orquestra Enterprise Solution to drive rapid algorithm development and integration in MAG’s systems. Zapata’s technological expertise lies in the ability to ingest large and varied time series data streams, sensors, and other signals, including in low connectivity environments, make sense of the data, and deliver back to the user real-time insights, anomaly detection, and accurate predictions for what will happen next. These capabilities lie at the heart of ISR and the decision cycles necessary in tactical environments.

“MAG’s mission is to make the world smaller and safer,” says Donald Robinson PhD, MAG Chief Strategy Officer. “We serve our customers anywhere in the world under extreme and austere operating conditions. As the decisions in our operating theaters becomes faster paced, we must look to partner with non-traditional AI and software providers who can rapidly deliver innovations to help us deliver solutions to maintain our customers’ tactical decision superiority. We are excited to partner with a company like Zapata AI to help drive this transformative effort.”

“One of MAG’s greatest strengths is our ability to rapidly move innovations from a concept to fully operational in weeks or months, not years. Zapata has a proven ability to deploy AI applications for fast moving vehicles with complex telemetry and streaming data, while providing real-time decision support in high stakes environments such as INDYCAR racing. Merging Zapata’s experience with Andretti Racing and MAG’s ability to quickly and efficiently innovate, this partnership aims to create algorithmic mission packages that work with the complex platforms MAG integrates and operates for its customers.”

The MAG partnership adds to Zapata AI's experience in the United States Department of Defense sector. As the only company participating across all tracks of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Quantum Benchmarking program, and the company’s development partnership with USSOCOM, along with several late stage agreements and partnerships, Zapata AI is leading groundbreaking efforts in applying its quantum-enabled algorithms, sensor intelligence and anomaly detection technology, proprietary AI capabilities, and proven delivery methodology to produce results in environments where “intelligence anywhere”, speed, and accuracy are mission critical.