Duality AI, the company behind the Falcon digital twin simulation platform, has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Army’s XM30 Programme Office. The XM30 team is developing a next-generation replacement for the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, with a major focus on countering emerging drone threats.
To strengthen soldier protection, the Army is working on an AI Target Detection and Recognition (AiTDR) system. The system is designed to identify and respond to drones before they can pose a threat. The Army’s Project Linchpin and the Army Research Lab (ARL) will use Falcon’s synthetic data and virtual sensor simulations to build and refine this system ahead of its physical deployment.
This digital-first approach allows the Army to train AI models, test sensor setups, and simulate various drone attack scenarios using Falcon’s simulation environment. Doing so can significantly reduce development timelines and cut field deployment costs.
“Accomplishing these critical early steps with digital twins is vital for a viable future of field-deployable AI systems,” said Michael Taylor, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Duality AI. “Falcon’s full control over simulated environments allows the Army to train and validate the AiTDR system in complex conditions before real-world testing begins.”
Developing a highly accurate and reliable AiTDR system requires vast amounts of training data—something often hard to gather from real-world sources. Falcon can generate that data by simulating a wide range of drones, landscapes, lighting conditions, and threats using its virtual sensors.
Duality’s track record, including work on the DARPA RACER challenge, shows that AI models trained with synthetic data can perform on par with—or even better than—those trained with real data.
In the first phase of the project, Duality and ARL will produce a trained AI model embedded in Falcon’s simulator. Later phases will involve ongoing updates to both the simulation environment and the AI model, with Duality providing engineering support.
The Army also plans to explore broader uses of Falcon’s digital twin technology to meet future AI and machine learning data needs.
“We are thrilled to work with the Project Linchpin and ARL teams to push the possibilities of AI defense systems for the U.S. Army,” said Apurva Shah, Duality CEO and co-founder. “The XM30’s digital-first approach is a bold step toward transforming military technology development, and we’re honored to contribute.”
