Dutch navy starts retiring submarines, but successor still unknown

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  October 3, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  DARPA Selects Teams to Explore Underground Domain in Subterranean Challenge

  Self-funded teams also invited to compete; media teleconference with program manager Sept. 27 OUTREACH@DARPA.MIL The world beneath us leaves much to be discovered. These uncharted environments pose immense challenges to military and emergency personnel as they respond to threats from adversaries or natural disasters. DARPA has selected nine teams to compete in the Subterranean (SubT) Challenge – seven in the physical Systems track and two in the Virtual track – to develop new approaches to rapidly map, navigate, and search underground environments. The competition seeks to better equip warfighters and first responders to explore human-made tunnel systems, urban underground, and natural cave networks that are too dangerous, dark, or deep to risk human lives. SubT program manager, Timothy Chung, will be available for media Q&A at noon EDT, Sept. 27. Interested reporters must contact outreach@darpa.mil for teleconference details. The SubT Challenge physical Systems and software-focused Virtual competitions aim to create a community of multi-disciplinary teams from distinct fields to foster breakthrough technologies in autonomy, perception, networking, and mobility for underground environments. Teams in the Systems competition will develop and demonstrate physical systems in real-world environments. DARPA has selected seven teams to compete in the funded track of the Systems competition: Carnegie Mellon University Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia iRobot Defense Holdings, Inc. dba Endeavor Robotics Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology University of Colorado, Boulder University of Nevada, Reno University of Pennsylvania Teams in the Virtual competition will use simulation models and physics-based environments focusing on software-driven advances. The following organizations have received a contract to compete in the DARPA-funded track of the Virtual competition: Michigan Technological University Scientific Systems Company, Inc. Teams participating in the challenge will be tasked with designing and developing novel solutions that address the challenges of subterranean environments in circuits for each of the subdomains to include tunnel systems, urban underground, and natural cave networks, culminating with a final event encompassing elements from all three environments. DARPA also is seeking self-funded competitors for both the Systems and Virtual competitions. Self-funded teams will compete for prizes in each of the subdomain circuits. DARPA-funded and self-funded teams will vie for a $2 million prize in the Systems track, while the winner of the Virtual track will earn a $750,000 prize. Competitors Day will take place Thursday, Sept. 27, to convey the vision, schedule, registration information, and additional details for the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge, engage potential entrants, and provide a forum for technical exchange and teaming opportunities. For additional information on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, please visit www.subtchallenge.com. Please email questions to SubTChallenge@darpa.mil. Image Caption: The DARPA Subterranean Challenge explores innovative approaches and new technologies to rapidly map, navigate, and search complex underground environments. Click below for high-resolution image. # # # Media with inquiries should contact DARPA Public Affairs at outreach@darpa.mil Associated images posted on www.darpa.mil and video posted at www.youtube.com/darpatv may be reused according to the terms of the DARPA User Agreement, available here: http://go.usa.gov/cuTXR. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-09-26

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  June 22, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Artificial intelligence systems need ‘checks and balances’ throughout development

  Andrew Eversden The Pentagon's primary artificial intelligence hub is already studying how to aim a laser at the correct spot on an enemy vehicle, pinpointing which area to target to inflict the most damage, and identifying the most important messages headed to commanders, officials said June 16. But as part of that work, the Department of Defense needs to carefully implement checks and balances into the development process, experts urged June 16. “Fundamentally I would say there's a requirement ... that there's going to be a mixture of measures taken to ensure the governability of the system from the first stage of the design of the system all the way up through the operations of the system in a combat scenario,” said Greg Allen, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center's chief of strategy and communications at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, at the Defense One Tech Summit June 16. The JAIC is working on several lethality projects through its new joint warfighting initiative, boosted by a new contract award to Booz Allen potentially worth $800 million. “With this new contract vehicle, we have the potential to do even more this next year than we did in the past,” Allen said. Meanwhile, the Army's Artificial Intelligence Task Force is working on an advanced threat recognition project. DARPA is exploring complementing AI systems that would identify available combat support assets and quickly plan their route to the area. Throughout all of the development work, experts from the military and from academia stressed that human involvement and experimentation was critical to ensuring that artificial intelligence assets are trustworthy. The department has released a document of five artificial intelligence ethical principles, but the challenge remains implementing those principles into projects across a department with disparate services working on separate artificial intelligence projects. “We want safe, reliable and robust systems deployed to our warfighters,” said Heather Roff, senior research analyst at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. “We want to be able to trust those systems. We want to have some sort of measure of predictability even if those systems act unpredictably.” Brig. Gen. Matt Easley, director of the artificial intelligence task force at Army Futures Command, said the service is grappling with those exact challenges, trying to understand how the service can insert “checks and balances” as it trains systems and soldiers. Easley added that the unmanned systems under development by the Army will have to be adaptable to different environments, such as an urban or desert scenarios. In order to ensure that the systems and soldiers are ready for those scenarios, the Army has to complete a series of tests, just like the autonomous vehicle industry. “We don't think these systems are going to be 100 percent capable right out of the box,” Easley said on the webinar. “If you look at a lot of the evolution of the self-driving cars throughout our society today, they're doing a lot of experimentation. They're doing lots of testing, lots of learning every day. We in the Army have to learn how to go from doing one to two to three vehicle experiments to have many experiments going on every day across all our camp posts and stations.” Increasingly autonomous systems also mean that there needs to a cultural shift in among all levels of military personnel who will need to better understand how artificial intelligence is used. Roff said that operators, commanders and judge advocate generals will need to better understand how systems are supposed “to ensure that the human responsibility and governability is there.” “We need to make sure that we have training, tactics, procedures, as well as policies, ensuring where we know the human decision maker is,” Roff said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2020/06/18/artificial-intelligence-systems-need-checks-and-balances-throughout-development/

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  March 14, 2023 | International, Aerospace

  Norway to buy six Sikorsky helicopters for $1.1 bln to monitor its seas

  Norway's military plans to buy six Seahawk helicopters for 12 billion crowns ($1.14 billion) from Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky, the defence minister said on Tuesday, to boost its ability to monitor its vast seas and Arctic territory.