ANELLO Photonics and Delta Black Aerospace have entered a collaboration to integrate advanced optical inertial navigation technology into Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) designed for GPS-denied and contested environments.
The partnership focuses on the integration and evaluation of ANELLO’s optical Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), based on its Silicon Photonic Optical Gyroscope (SiPhOG) technology, with Delta Black Aerospace’s uncrewed aircraft platforms.
This effort addresses the critical need for assured Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) in scenarios where GPS signals are unavailable, degraded, or compromised by electronic attacks and terrain occlusion. As uncrewed systems face rising risks from jamming and spoofing, the demand for low-drift navigation solutions has become a priority for autonomous operations.
ANELLO’s solid-state technology provides high-precision navigation in a compact form factor tailored for size, weight, power, and cost-constrained platforms. Delta Black Aerospace specializes in mission-focused aircraft for long-endurance and long-range profiles. Through this collaboration, both companies will work together to optimize solutions on their platforms with the goal to improve navigation accuracy, autonomy, and mission continuity during extended operations without GPS, supporting mission sets such as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), contested logistics, and autonomous operations in GPS-denied airspace.
Dr. Mario Paniccia, co-founder and CEO of ANELLO Photonics, commented, “For uncrewed systems, assured navigation without reliance on GPS is no longer optional. This collaboration with Delta Black Aerospace focuses on integrating ANELLO’s photonics-based inertial navigation at the platform level to support sustained autonomous operation in contested and denied environments.”
Chrissy Edwards, CIO of Delta Black Aerospace, added, “Navigation resilience directly impacts mission effectiveness for uncrewed aircraft.”
Jeff Lydecker, CTO of Delta Black Aerospace, also stated, “Integrating ANELLO’s high-performance inertial navigation enables our platforms to maintain accurate state estimation and autonomous operation, even when GPS is unavailable or compromised.”
The initiative is aligned with Department of War priorities for resilient autonomy and distributed multi-domain operations. By reducing dependence on external satellite signals, the integrated systems are designed to maintain mission continuity for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and contested logistics.
