Back to news

June 26, 2018 | International, Naval, C4ISR

How the Navy can lean in to software superiority

The Navy needs to take a "hard look” at its digital needs according to a senior Navy software official, especially in technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, or risk vital weapons systems failing on the future battlefield.

Attendees of the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit in Washington June 21 heard warnings that obsolete and slow approaches are driving up costs of time and resources for the Navy's newest technologies that interact with one another in combat.

"It's really a matter of making System A talk to System B,” said Richard Jack, a lead engineer and project director at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific. “A logistics system that needs to be able to interact with a weapons system.”

Software superiority is an important part of the Navy's plan for a global competitive edge, from unmanned underwater vehicles to drones operated from ships. Unless the Navy wants to get an error message at a crucial combat moment, they will have to search outside their own technology labs for the solution to the interoperability challenge, Jack said.

“The Navy can't do this alone, as 99 percent of the brain trust is in the cloud service providers and the industry,” Jack stated. He expressed the need to “take advantage” of lessons learned by cloud industry leaders on big data collection and interpreting results to make predictions .

Jack suggested accelerating operations with increased cloud computing, creating shared infrastructure to make sure data centers are connected, eliminating duplicative investments across some programs, and further expanding AI and machine learning advancements.

The software engineer expressed confidence that learning from cloud service providers will result in the Navy enhancing warfighting abilities, envisioning a cloud to allow instant data sharing “between a weapons system, an airframe, a UAV, and a logistics system” at the same time.

Jack also praised cloud computing as important to the “compile to combat” program, in which the Navy is experimenting with ways to deploy new software capabilities to ships at sea in less than 24 hours.

While the cloud can “be super fast and super efficient” for accessing large amounts of data anywhere, Jack also promised that it also allows the Navy to “really push the boundaries of machine learning,” even though “we are behind the curve” at the moment.

Through “strategic partnerships” with the “Amazons, Googles and IBM Watsons of the world,” Jack promised the Navy could accomplish even more in the areas of AI and machine learning that will dominate warfighting in the era of the cloud.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2018/06/25/how-the-navy-can-lean-in-to-software-superiority/

On the same subject

  • Sikorsky to upgrade HH-60W helo to improve on 2012 baseline capabilities

    February 16, 2021 | International, Aerospace

    Sikorsky to upgrade HH-60W helo to improve on 2012 baseline capabilities

    by Gareth Jennings The US Air Force (USAF) is to contract Sikorsky to upgrade its HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter to improve on the 2012 requirements baseline. The service disclosed on 11 February that the manufacturer is to bring the capabilities of the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) up to today's specifications, ahead of the commencement of full rate production in fiscal year 2022. “The current system specification reflects a 2012 requirements baseline which was defined and frozen prior to the 2014 CRH contract awarded for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase,” the USAF said in its sole-source justification document posted on the beta.sam.gov US government procurement website. “During the last five years of EMD execution, the original CRH requirements baseline has evolved as a result of changes in threat conditions and evolving mission requirements. The response to this operational need is the driver for the continuance of new capability development and integration into the CRH baseline.” In response to this requirement, the USAF is to award Sikorsky a USD980.7 million contract over a five-year ordering period, with the work itself to run for seven years. News of the planned award came some 16 months after the USAF issued a request for information (RFI) on 1 October 2019 to assess the ability of companies and industry at large to perform development, integration, verification, production, and installation of a broad spectrum of capability upgrades for the CSAR helicopter, which at that time had only recently been cleared to enter into low-rate initial production (LRIP). https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/sikorsky-to-upgrade-hh-60w-helo-to-improve-on-2012-baseline-capabilities

  • Romania opens F-16 pilot training hub for NATO allies, Ukraine | Reuters

    November 13, 2023 | International, Aerospace

    Romania opens F-16 pilot training hub for NATO allies, Ukraine | Reuters

    Red is a Romanian fighter pilot with hundreds of flight hours and countless air policing missions on the NATO state's now retired fleet of MIG21 LanceR jets who will be flying Lockheed Martin F-16 planes as early as December.

  • Fincantieri Group signs MoU with Barzan Holdings for anti-drone radar system in Qatar

    October 24, 2024 | International, Land

    Fincantieri Group signs MoU with Barzan Holdings for anti-drone radar system in Qatar

    This partnership focuses on the joint development of the Omega360 radar program, which will serve as the central sensor for Qatar’s national anti-drone system.

All news