July 6, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Antti Kolehmainen
The rise of non-traditional actors, cyberattacks and state-sponsored subversion is challenging democratic governance and creating an increasingly volatile operational and security environment for defense agencies. To address these threats, military organizations must be able to operate seamlessly and intelligently across a network of multinational partners.
This year's Accenture Technology Vision identified five trends that are essential components of any intelligent defense organization: Citizen AI, extended reality, data veracity, frictionless business and Internet of Thinking.
Private AI: training AI as an effective troop member
Harnessing AI's potential is no longer just about training it to perform a specific task: AI will increasingly function alongside people as a full-fledged member of a team. In the high-stakes world of defense, it's especially important that AI systems act as trustworthy, responsible and efficient colleagues.
AI could have a major impact for military organizations, including defense logistics and cybersecurity. An adversary equipped with advanced AI capabilities will not wait for its enemies to catch up technologically before launching an offensive. AI's ability to process and analyze vast amounts of data has significant implications across the Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA) loop. From augmenting our ability to detect new threats to analyzing countless variables, AI could transform surveillance and situational awareness.
Extended Reality: The end of distance
Extended reality (XR), which includes virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), is the first technology to relocate people in both time and place—effectively eliminating distance.
For the defense sector, the ability to simulate and share a common view of an operational theatre is immensely powerful. Recently, Accenture created a mixed reality proof of concept using Microsoft HoloLens and gaming engine Unity that provides military personnel with an interactive map showing real-time location and status data for troops and resources on the ground. With a simple command, a user can order reinforcements or supplies, or create and test different scenarios through a mixed reality interface.
XR technology can also enhance operational command capabilities in the field. For example, AR goggles could provide dashboards and data visualizations where and when they are needed – such as at an operating base. XR also will have major implications for training, allowing soldiers and pilots to engage in highly realistic combat simulations.
Data veracity: the importance of trust
As defense organizations become increasingly data-driven, inaccurate and manipulated information is a persistent and serious threat. Agencies can address this vulnerability by building confidence in three key data-focused tenets: provenance, or verifying data from its origin throughout its life cycle; context, or considering the circumstances around its use; and integrity, or securing and maintaining data.
The ability to trust and verify the data that flows between multinational partners is critically important. Organizations must be capable of delivering the right data to the right recipient, at the right time – which can only be accomplished by radically reorienting how data is shared across today's armed forces. Today's vertical approach involves passing information up and down the command stack of a nation's military. In contrast, multinational military operations demand that information is also shared horizontally across the forces of different nations and partners. This shift requires a profound change in technology, mindset and culture within agencies.
Frictionless defense: built to partner at scale
Our recent survey found that 36 percent of public service leaders report working with twice as many strategic partners than two years ago. And when partnerships between industry, academia and military organizations are horizontally integrated and technology-based, they can expand faster and further than ever before. But legacy systems weren't built to support this kind of expansion, and soon, outdated systems will be major hindrances to collaboration.
With this in mind, defense organizations must develop new IT architectures to reduce complexity. Agile IT systems will allow innovation to flourish, unimpeded by internal politics and employee resistance. A modern IT architecture will push organizations to clearly define the services they offer and turn each service into a potential enabler of collaboration.
The Internet of Thinking: intelligent distributed defense capabilities
Today's technology infrastructures are designed around a few basic assumptions: enough bandwidth to support remote applications, an abundance of computing power in a remote cloud and nearly infinite storage. But the demand for immediate response times defies this approach. Recent projections suggest that by 2020, smart sensors and other Internet of Things devices will generate at least 507.5 zettabytes of data. Trying to manage the computational “heavy-lifting” offsite will become limiting.
The need for real-time systems puts hardware back in focus: special-purpose and customizable hardware is making devices at the edge of networks more powerful and energy efficient than ever before. Public service organizations are taking note: our survey indicates 79 percent of leaders believe it will be very critical over the next two years to leverage custom hardware and accelerators to meet new computing demands.
The next generation of military strategies ride on pushing intelligence into the physical world. Defense organizations have to embrace new operating models to enable high-speed data flows, harness the potential of distributed intelligence and successfully neutralize threats.
The defense sector is challenged to respond to new types of threat, political volatility and even new combat arenas, and acquiring new technology capabilities is a strategic imperative. Delivering greater situational awareness and the ability to respond rapidly to unpredictable adversaries requires investments in AI, edge computing and other emerging technologies. Likewise, today's information architectures will need to be redesigned to collaborate quickly, effectively and securely.
Antti Kolehmainen is managing director, defense business service global lead at Accenture.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/opinion/2018/07/05/5-technology-trends-driving-an-intelligent-military
September 30, 2022 | International, Naval
The design for the program Plataforma Estratégica de Superficie (‘PES’) is based on the proven design of the SIGMA 10514
May 22, 2019 | International, Aerospace
PAR ERIC FELLEY Zurich-Washington aller-retour, dix-huit heures d'avion pour aller discuter pendant 40 minutes avec Donald Trump dans le bureau ovale de la Maison Blanche. Tout cela n'est pas très écologique... Mais au diable le CO2, c'était ce jeudi jour de gloire pour Ueli Maurer. L'UDC aura ressenti beaucoup d'émotion à serrer la main de l'homme le plus puissant de la planète, dont son parti partage le style conservateur désinhibé. Cela valait la peine d'attendre 27 ans avant de retourner visiter un président américain. Tout doit rester secret... Le contenu des discussions entre les deux présidents n'a pas été rendu public. On pense qu'elles ont tourné autour des bons offices de la Suisse avec l'Iran dans cette période de tension entre les faucons américains et le régime de Mollahs. L'autre aspect de la rencontre serait un accord de libre-échange entre la Suisse et les Etats-Unis, qui serait une formidable opportunité pour l'économie suisse. A condition que la Suisse verte et agricole accepte les OGM, ce qui est moins sûr que la fonte des glaciers. Six milliard à dépenser Mais la vraie raison de cette visite est sans doute d'ordre commercial plus terre à terre. Dans les airs, dira-t-on. La porte d'entrée de cet accord de libre échange pourrait bien être l'achat par la Suisse des avions de combat pour six milliards de bons francs suisses. Hasard du calendrier, le même jour, la conseillère fédérale Viola Amherd présente à Berne sa stratégie pour faire passer le fameux achat devant le peuple, probablement en 2020, sans préciser le type d'avion. Boeing ou Lockheed-Martin ? Or, ici, c'est le nerf de la guerre pour le Conseil fédéral. Parmi les candidats qui veulent vendre des jets à l'armée suisse figurent les deux mega compagnies américaines: Boeing (F/A-18 Super Hornet) et Lockheed-Martin (F-35A). Elles sont en concurrence avec les européennes: Saab, Suède (Gripen E), Airbus, Allemagne (Eurofighter) et Dassault, France (Rafale). Nul doute que Donald Trump serait flatté si la Suisse dépensait ses milliards de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique. Retour d'ascenseur ? «Together ahead» a écrit Ueli Maurer sur le livre d'or de la Maison blanche. Il se trouve que c'est le slogan publicitaire de la firme d'armement Ruag de la Confédération, qui est active dans l'aéronautique. «Les avions sont notre passion, écrit la société sur son site. RUAG est leader de la fourniture, du suivi et de l'intégration de systèmes et de composants pour l'aéronautique civile et militaire.» Le message semble clair. Quand le peuple aura approuvé les yeux fermés l'achat d'avions de combat, on verra si la visite de Maurer à Trump aura été suivie d'effets. (Le Matin) https://www.lematin.ch/suisse/Trump-Et-n-oubliez-pas-dacheter-nos-jets-M-Maurer/story/30262949
August 19, 2020 | International, Naval, C4ISR
Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — An information warfare project run by Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) recently received hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds after a successful first 18 months, NAVWAR announced Aug. 17. NAVWAR's Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP), which uses an agile acquisition tool known as an Other Transaction Authority to quickly contract for and deliver IW tools, recently received a $400 million funding increase and two-year performance period extension after hitting its $100 million funding ceiling a year before the project was set to expire next summer. The massive bump was approved by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts. The project, which kicked off in October 2018, now has a $500 million ceiling and a five-year performance period. “IWRP has proven its effectiveness and successfulness as a streamlined approach to rapid prototyping,” said Jee Youn Fickling, IWRP program manager at Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic, in a statement. “As interest increases to do more prototyping in order to keep up with the pace of technology, IWRP OTA offers the flexibility and speed within 14 technology areas. The growth in interest from IWRP users across many Navy and Marine Corps commands and program offices and the growth in the size of the consortium, speaks volumes to the need to quickly make awards for prototypes.” The project focuses on technology areas that include tools for cyber warfare, autonomous systems, cloud computing and data analytics. IWRP partners with industry and academia through a consortium managed by Advanced Technology International, a non-profit that builds research and development partnerships. In the last 18 months, the IWRP has released more than 800 prototyping opportunities, according to the NAVWAR press release. The consortium has more than 580 partners. IWRP users include NAVWAR, NIWC Atlantic, NIWC Pacific, Naval Sea Systems Command Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations, Program Executive Office (PEO) for Digital Enterprise Services, PEO for Manpower, Logistics and Business Solutions, PEO Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence Space Systems, PEO Integrated Warfare Systems, Marine Corps Systems Command, Naval Analytics Office and Office of Naval Research. “IWRP has been a game changer and has proven to be a key enabler in rapid delivery of IW capability to the warfighter,” said Nicole Stone, director of rapid prototyping – information warfare at NIWC Pacific, in a statement. “Collaboration with our partners in industry, small business and academia, with the flexibility necessary to adapt to evolving requirements, is critical to our success in winning the fight. IWRP provides that platform for us.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/information-warfare/2020/08/18/navy-information-warfare-project-received-400-million-funding-boost/