August 9, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR
WASHINGTON --
Five university-industry teams have been selected for the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative, known as DESI, Defense Department officials announced today.
DESI is a pilot program supporting university-industry research collaboration focused on accelerating the impact of basic research on defense capabilities.
DESI's goals are twofold, officials said. First, it seeks to foster sustainable university-industry partnerships to identify and apply new discoveries and knowledge on existing capabilities and address technological gaps. DESI also aims to charter a new pathway to accelerate the transfer of basic research to innovative technologies and complement the department's other basic research programs such as the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative and the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program.
“Programs like DESI are vital to foster collaboration in the research ecosystem and accelerate the transition of ground-breaking basic science to transformative capabilities,” said Dr. Bindu Nair, deputy director for basic research. “I look forward to seeing how these teams can help us address our unique and challenging defense problem sets.”
Each team will receive up to $1.5 million over two years to further fundamental knowledge and understanding in the context of end-use applications.
Full Article: https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1595382/dod-announces-desi-awards-for-university-industry-collaborations/
July 6, 2021 | International, C4ISR, Security
The artificial intelligence piloting program is rapidly gaining experience and could fly alongside manned pilots in the not-so-distant future.
July 24, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security
Getting it right doesn't just mean staying within the bounds of the law. It means making sure that the AI delivers reports that accurate and useful to policymakers. By KELSEY ATHERTON ALBUQUERQUE — Today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released what the first take on an evolving set of principles for the ethical use of artificial intelligence. The six principles, ranging from privacy to transparency to cybersecurity, are described as Version 1.0, approved by DNI John Ratcliffe last month. The six principles are pitched as a guide for the nation's many intelligence especially, especially to help them work with the private companies that will build AI for the government. As such, they provide an explicit complement to the Pentagon's AI principles put forth by Defense Secretary Mark Esper back in February. “These AI ethics principles don't diminish our ability to achieve our national security mission,” said Ben Huebner, who heads the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency at ODNI. “To the contrary, they help us ensure that our AI or use of AI provides unbiased, objective and actionable intelligence policymakers require that is fundamentally our mission.” The Pentagon's AI ethics principles came at the tail end of a long process set in motion by workers at Google. These workers called upon the tech giant to withdraw from a contract to build image-processing AI for Project Maven, which sought to identify objects in video recorded by the military. While ODNI's principles come with an accompanying six-page ethics framework, there is no extensive 80-page supporting annex, like that put forth by the Department of Defense. “We need to spend our time under framework and the guidelines that we're putting out to make sure that we're staying within the guidelines,” said Dean Souleles, Chief Technology Advisor at ODNI. “This is a fast-moving train with this technology. Within our working groups, we are actively working on many, many different standards and procedures for practitioners to use and begin to adopt these technologies.” Governing AI as it is developed is a lot like laying out the tracks ahead while the train is in motion. It's a tricky proposition for all involved — but the technology is evolving too fast and unpredictable to try to carve commandments in stone for all time. Here are the six principles, in the document's own words: Respect the Law and Act with Integrity. We will employ AI in a manner that respects human dignity, rights, and freedoms. Our use of AI will fully comply with applicable legal authorities and with policies and procedures that protect privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. Transparent and Accountable. We will provide appropriate transparency to the public and our customers regarding our AI methods, applications, and uses within the bounds of security, technology, and releasability by law and policy, and consistent with the Principles of Intelligence Transparency for the IC. We will develop and employ mechanisms to identify responsibilities and provide accountability for the use of AI and its outcomes. Objective and Equitable. Consistent with our commitment to providing objective intelligence, we will take affirmative steps to identify and mitigate bias. Human-Centered Development and Use. We will develop and use AI to augment our national security and enhance our trusted partnerships by tempering technological guidance with the application of human judgment, especially when an action has the potential to deprive individuals of constitutional rights or interfere with their free exercise of civil liberties. Secure and Resilient. We will develop and employ best practices for maximizing reliability, security, and accuracy of AI design, development, and use. We will employ security best practices to build resilience and minimize potential for adversarial influence. Informed by Science and Technology. We will apply rigor in our development and use of AI by actively engaging both across the IC and with the broader scientific and technology communities to utilize advances in research and best practices from the public and private sector. The accompanying framework offers further questions for people to ask when programming, evaluating, sourcing, using, and interpreting information informed by AI. While bulk processing of data by algorithm is not a new phenomenon for the intelligence agencies, having a learning algorithm try to parse that data and summarize it for a human is a relatively recent feature. Getting it right doesn't just mean staying within the bounds of the law, it means making sure that the data produced by the inquiry is accurate and useful when handed off to the people who use intelligence products to make policy. “We are absolutely welcoming public comment and feedback on this,” said Huebner, noting that there will be a way for public feedback at Intel.gov. “No question at all that there's going to be aspects of what we do that are and remain classified. I think though, what we can do is talk in general terms about some of the things that we are doing.” Internal legal review, as well as classified assessments from the Inspectors General, will likely be what makes the classified data processing AI accountable to policymakers. For the general public, as it offers comment on intelligence service use of AI, examples will have to come from outside classification, and will likely center on examples of AI in the private sector. “We think there's a big overlap between what the intelligence community needs and frankly, what the private sector needs that we can and should be working on, collectively together,” said Souleles. He specifically pointed to the task of threat identification, using AI to spot malicious actors that seek to cause harm to networks, be they e-commerce giants or three-letter agencies. Depending on one's feelings towards the collection and processing of information by private companies vis-à-vis the government, it is either reassuring or ominous that when it comes to performing public accountability for spy AI, the intelligence community will have business examples to turn to. “There's many areas that I think we're going to be able to talk about going forward, where there's overlap that does not expose our classified sources and methods,” said Souleles, “because many, many, many of these things are really really common problems.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/intelligence-agencies-release-ai-ethics-principles/
October 30, 2019 | International, Aerospace
October 25, 2019, Spain - Indra, one of the leading multinational technology and consulting companies, has delivered the most advanced helicopter flight simulator in Europe to the Spanish Army. It is the NH90 training system, which contributes to the training of pilots of the three army corps and has been installed at the Héroes del Revellín base in Agoncillo (La Rioja, Spain) as part of the Helicopter Simulation Center (CESIHEL) of the Aviation Academy of the Spanish Army (ACAVIET). The official reception of the system took place this morning in an act chaired by the General Director of Armament and Material (DIGAM), Admiral Santiago Ramón González, in the presence of the Logistic Support Command Chief of the Spanish Army (JEMALE), Lieutenant General Ramón Pardo de Santayana, various Army commanders, and the General Director of Indra, Ignacio Mataix. The NH90 simulator is Indra's new "crown jewel" in simulation. With its launch, the company strengthens its position in the global military simulation market that has grown steadily in recent years and in 2017 generated around 10.8 billion dollars. Indra is positioned ahead of its competitors as a candidate to meet the training needs of the 13 countries and 18 users who have the NH90, both in Europe and the rest of the world. The use of synthetic training systems is essential in preparing pilots of an aircraft equipped with the most complex systems, greatly reducing training times and increasing safety while lowering costs. Indra's simulator recreates with maximum fidelity and realism all the missions in which a military pilot can participate. It has been specially designed for tactical training. On board, pilots can prepare for real operations before carrying them out in their deployments. Remote virtual network training This new system will be integrated into the Army's simulator network, allowing its pilots to carry out joint training missions with other helicopter simulators found in other army bases such as the CH-47D Chinook, the AS532 Cougar, the EC135 or the EC665 Tiger attack helicopter. This means all the pilots will share the same scenario and can train together, regardless of being separated by hundreds of kilometers. The new system represents a decisive commitment to innovation and development of proprietary technologies by the Spanish Ministry of Defense. It ensures top-quality training for pilots of this multipurpose helicopter, the most advanced of its kind in the world, as it is an aircraft designed to carry out missions ranging from tactical transportation and medical evacuation, to special operations, and naval, antisubmarine and electronic combat. About Indra Indra (www.indracompany.com) is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and is a technology partner for the key business operations of its clients worldwide. It is a leading global supplier of proprietary solutions in specific segments of the Transportation and Defense markets, and a leading company in digital transformation and Information Technology consulting in Spain and Latin America through its subsidiary, Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive offer of its own products, with an end-to-end approach, high-value and a high innovation aspect. In 2018 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of 3.104 billion, with 43,000 employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in more than 140 countries. View source version on Indra: https://www.indracompany.com/en/noticia/indra-provides-spanish-army-advanced-helicopter-simulator-europe