Mission Systems Division
U.S. national security is entering a new era defined by contested environments, disaggregated platforms, and rapidly evolving threats. Every domain of conflict is becoming more complex, requiring systems that can sense their surroundings and adapt to changing conditions quickly and precisely. Meeting these demands calls for interdisciplinary research, rigorous experimentation, and technologies ready for deployment.
The Mission Systems Division develops these capabilities by advancing next-generation technologies from the seabed to cislunar. Our research spans platform development, space situational awareness, maritime remote sensing, environmental modeling, hypersonics, counter-drone technologies, and multi-agent autonomy. We integrate physics-based modeling, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) signal processing, and platform design to create systems that operate reliably in denied environments and support tactical decision-making. Hands-on experimentation is central to our mission. Students and researchers design, build, and test satellites, high-altitude balloons, drones, underwater vehicles, and sensors by leveraging ground-station facilities, thermal vacuum chambers, vibration test facilities, counter-unmanned aerial systems (CUAS) test facilities, and hypersonic wind tunnels.
These experiences position us to field technologies that matter today while cultivating the workforce that will shape tomorrow’s mission systems. By combining scientific rigor with operational insight, we ensure that next-generation platforms are adaptable, secure, and ready for real-world deployment.
Capabilities
Unmanned Systems
Advancing CUAS testing, enhanced UAS, and multi-agent autonomy to support flexible, adaptive mission operations in contested environments.
Space Situational Awareness
Developing space object surveillance and identification (SOSI) network modeling, proximity operations tools, astrodynamics methods, mission modeling, autonomous sensor tasking, and tracking capabilities for resilient space domain awareness.
AI/ML Signal Processing
Combining traditional signal processing with AI/ML approaches to improve detection, interpretation, and decision support across complex electromagnetic environments.
Remote Sensing
Leveraging physics-based models, detailed sensor integration, and computational fluid dynamics to strengthen maritime and environmental sensing for mission-critical operations.
Cubesats and Small Satellites
Designing secure and resilient small satellites and enabling tracking through ground-station integration to support rapid, distributed space missions.
Hypersonics
Using wind-tunnel testing, reduced-order modeling, and related experimental methods to advance hypersonic system development and environmental understanding.
Research Spotlights
Centers & Facilities
The Virginia Tech Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems Testing and Research Center (CTRC) unites Virginia Tech’s strengths in autonomy, sensing, and spectrum expertise to develop and evaluate technologies that detect, track, identify, and defeat unmanned aerial systems (UAS). From controlled laboratories to 1,800 acres of open sky, the center provides government and industry partners with a trusted, instrumented environment to prove what works under real-world and augmented conditions.
The Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics at Virginia Tech researches how autonomous marine vehicles and sensing systems operate in complex maritime conditions. Supported by the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering (AOE), the center conducts foundational and applied research in hydrodynamics, autonomy, and control, advancing marine systems capable of sensing, navigating, and operating autonomously in challenging environments.
Virginia Tech’s Hypersonic Wind Tunnel recreates the extreme thermal and aerodynamic conditions that high-speed vehicles and sensors encounter during hypersonic flight. Owned by the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering (AOE) and operated by the PHASE Research Group, the facility enables controlled studies of hypersonic aerodynamics, turbulence, ablation effects, and aero-optics under intense loads, grounding models and designs in experimentally validated, mission-relevant conditions.
The Space Domain Awareness Observatory at Virginia Tech provides a dedicated environment for observing and characterizing objects in Earth’s orbital regimes. Operated by VTNSI, the facility uses optical sensing to collect astrometric and photometric data that supports the tracking, identification, and analysis of satellites and debris. Additionally, the facility enhances space domain awareness by providing experimentally grounded data for understanding activity in the orbital environment.
Division Leadership
Austin Phoenix
Director, Mission Systems Division
Kevin Schroeder
Associate Director, Mission Systems Division
John Gilbert
Assistant Director, Mission Systems Division
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The Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI) advances national security through mission-driven research, technology innovation, and workforce development. Unlike traditional academic research centers, the institute integrates interdisciplinary expertise across engineering, computing, policy, and national security disciplines to rapidly translate research into mission-ready capabilities.