May 29, 2020 | International, C4ISR

How Army Futures Command plans to grow soldiers’ artificial intelligence skills

WASHINGTON — With artificial intelligence expected to form the backbone of the U.S. military in the coming decades, the Army is launching a trio of new efforts to ensure it doesn't get left behind, according to the head of Army Futures Command.

While speaking at an event Wednesday hosted by the Defense Writers Group, Gen. Mike Murray was asked about areas that need more attention as his command works to modernize the force.

Murray pointed to a change in how the service does long-term planning, as well as two personnel efforts that could pay off in the long run.

The first is something Murray has dubbed “Team Ignite,” which he described as “ad hoc, right now,” with a hope to formalize the process in the future. In essence, this means bringing in the teams that write the concept of operations for the military and having them work next to the technologists driving research and development efforts so that everything is incorporated early.

“It has occurred to me for a long time that when we prepare concepts about how we will fight in the future, they are usually not informed by scientists and what is potentially out there in terms of technology,” Murray said. “And when we invest in technologies, rarely do we consult the concept writers to understand what type of technology will fundamentally change the way we fight in the future.”

In Murray's vision, this means soon there will be “a concept writer saying, ‘If only I could [do something we can't do now], this would fundamentally change the way we would fight,' and a scientist or technologist saying, ‘Well, actually we can, you know, another 10-15 years,' and then vice versa,” he said. “Really using that to drive where we're investing our science and technology dollars, so that in 10 or 15 years we actually can fundamentally change the way we're going to fight.”

The Futures Command chief also laid out two new efforts to seed understanding of AI throughout the force, saying that “a key component of the Army moving more and more into the area of artificial intelligence is the talent that we're going to need in the formation to do that.”

Murray described a ”recently approved” masters program to be run through Carnegie Mellon University, focusing on bringing in “young officers, noncommissioned officers and warrant officers” to teach them about artificial intelligence. The course features four to five months of actual learning in the classroom, followed by five or six months working for the Army's AI Task Force. After that, the officers are sent back the force, bringing with them their AI experience.

Additionally, Murray is in the early stages of standing up what he described as a “software factory” to try and identify individual service members who have some computer skills, pull them out of their normal rotations and give them training on “basic coding skills” before sending them back to the force.

“We're going to need a lot of these types of people. This is just [the] beginning, to seed the Army with the types of talent we're going to need in the future if we're going to take advantage of data, if we're going to take advantage of artificial intelligence in the future,” he said.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/05/28/how-army-futures-command-plans-to-grow-ai-skills-in-the-service/

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February 11, 2021 | International, Land

US Army begins ‘light tank' soldier assessment without BAE Systems' prototype
by Ashley Roque US Army soldiers are in the midst of a five-month assessment of two different ‘light tank' prototypes – one version by BAE Systems and the other by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) – but the former company has yet to deliver any of its vehicles, according to industry and the service. The army kicked off its Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) soldier vehicle assessment (SVA) on 4 January and it is anticipated to continue through to June, Ashley John, director for public and congressional affairs for the Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems, told Janes on 27 January. Under the larger programme, both BAE Systems and GDLS are under contract to deliver 12 MPF prototypes to the army and soldiers are slated to test out four vehicles of each variant. However, this testing phase began with vehicles from only one company – GDLS. We have received 12 prototypes in total, and four ballistic hull and turrets,” John said. “We will continue to receive the remaining prototypes throughout fiscal year 2021.” Although John did not disclose which company produced the delivered prototypes, a GDLS spokesperson confirmed that the company delivered its 12th and final prototype to the army at the end of December 2020. GDLS's delivery completion means BAE Systems has delivered only two ballistic hulls to the service. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/us-army-begins-light-tank-soldier-assessment-without-bae-systems-prototype
May 11, 2021 | International, Aerospace

Northrop Grumman awarded $13.3 million for Blackjack payloads
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May 22, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Indra leads the European project that will give control of radioelectric space to fighters and aircraft
Spain, May 20, 2020 - Indra will lead the European CROWN R&D project that will equip European fighters and aircraft with capabilities which combine radar, communications and electronic defence to dominate radioelectric space and operate at an advantage over the enemy. The company will coordinate the work of a consortium formed by Thales, Office National D'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales (ONERA), Hensoldt, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, SAAB, Totalforsvarets Forskningsinstitut (FOI), Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Leonardo, Elettronica, and Baltijos Pazangiu Technologiju Institutas (BPTI). The project has been selected to form part of the Preparatory Action for Defence Research of the European Commission managed by the European Defence Agency and the grant agreement is now being prepared. This group of companies and research centers from seven countries will design the first element capable of integrating radar, electronic defence and communications equipment into a single compact and lightweight item of equipment that can be installed in the aircraft nose cone, camouflaged in the fuselage, or in an under-wing pod, on multiple platforms (even in UAVs). It will be a system based on active electronically scanned array (AESA) and sophisticated algorithms that will enable multi-purpose use for different capacities and in an optimized way. No other country as yet possesses this capability so it will bring a major advantage to whoever acquires it first. This integration will enable the aircraft's radar to intelligently select the least congested area of the spectrum to operate effectively and extend its range, even in environments where the adversary tries to interfere with its operation. At the same time, coordination of the radar with the systems that monitor the radio spectrum and those that generate countermeasures (ES/EA) will significantly improve the performance of these systems and of aircraft weapons systems in general. As for communications, they will gain range and bandwidth to exchange a greater volume of data with other platforms at higher speeds. The ultimate goal is to equip the aircraft of the future with a compact solution, smaller in size, with a lower weight and cost, and more power to provide a decisive advantage. On this will depend the ability to detect the enemy, select and fix targets and exchange data with other platforms on land, sea or air to prevail in combat or protect themselves from attack. Electronic defence has been placed at the center of military strategy in recent years as some countries resort to controlling radioelectric space as a way to counter the superiority of European and allied aircraft. The CROWN project could subsequently address the adaptation of this system for use by ground units and all types of land vehicles and ships. Leadership of the European defence sector The Spanish Government has appointed Indra as the national industrial coordinator in the European Defence Program FCAS (Future Combat Air System), the largest joint European Defence program to date and the most ambitious in terms of technological development. Indra will carry out this work together with the industrial leaders appointed in turn by France and Germany, Dassault and Airbus, respectively. The company also participates in the proposals for 9 EDIDP consortiums (European Defence Industrial Development Program) that are being evaluated and acts as coordinator in 3 out of 5 consortiums led by Spain, among others, the PESCO program for Strategic Command and Control, probably the most important of them all, in which Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Portugal participate. Besides this, Indra has been participating for decades in international programs such as the Eurofighter, A400M, NH90, Meteor and ESSOR, as well as non-European projects and in the NATO environment such as ESSM, FLEPS, ACCS and many others. About Indra Indra (www.indracompany.com) is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and the technological partner for core business operations of its customers world-wide. It is a world-leader in providing proprietary solutions in specific segments in Transport and Defence markets, and the leading firm in Digital Transformation Consultancy and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America, through its affiliate Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive range of proprietary products, with an end-to-end focus and a high innovation component. In the 2019 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of €3.204 billion, with more than 49,000 employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in over 140 countries. View source version on Indra: https://www.indracompany.com/en/noticia/indra-leads-european-project-will-give-control-radioelectric-space-fighters-aircraft

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How Army Futures Command plans to grow soldiers’ artificial intelligence skills

On the same subject

Northrop Grumman awarded $13.3 million for Blackjack payloads The company is building position, navigation and timing payloads for DARPA's Project Blackjack, a demonstration satellite constellation that will operate in low-Earth orbit.

Northrop Grumman awarded $13.3 million for Blackjack payloads
The company is building position, navigation and timing payloads for DARPA's Project Blackjack, a demonstration satellite constellation that will operate in low-Earth orbit.