Outgunned and outranged: Why the Army must get more from cannons and missiles

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  August 17, 2023 | International, Aerospace

  Satellite startup True Anomaly opens Colorado factory

  The building, called GravityWorks, will host production for the company’s Jackal spacecraft, designed to perform rendezvous and proximity operations.

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  August 30, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Collins Aerospace to support L3Harris in bringing new capabilities to the cockpit of 176 C-130H aircraft for the United States Air Force

  1970s era aircraft to be updated with Flight 2 Avionics Will support extension of life of the aircraft by 20 years Provides pilots increased situational awareness and reduces workload CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Aug. 28, 2019) – Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), has been selected by L3Harris Technologies to play a key role in the U.S. Air Force's C-130H Avionics Modernization Program Increment 2 (AMP INC 2) program. The fleet of 176 C-130H aircraft, operated by the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve, will be equipped with Collins Aerospace's Flight2™ integration avionics system and will expand the company's position as a global leader in C-130 modifications. Once on contract, Collins Aerospace's Flight2 avionics will replace over 100 analog instruments in the current cockpit with seven multifunctional displays (MFD), three control display units (CDU), and a new digital autopilot. These new systems will reduce workload, improve the pilots' situational awareness, and improve the safety and reliability of the aircraft. The new displays also make it easier for the pilots to overlay flight plans, see nearby points-of-interest and view radar and threat information. “Prior to our selection for the AMP INC 2 program, 190 C-130 aircraft have already been modified, or are on contract to be modified, with our proven Flight2™ avionics. Our history of successful installations played a big role in our selection,” said Dave Schreck, vice president and general manager for Military Avionics and Helicopters at Collins Aerospace. “These aircraft are important to national security, and by working with L3Harris, our integrated avionics system will support the extension of the life of the planes for another 20 years.” The avionics contract adds to the suite of nose-to-tail solutions that Collins Aerospace provides for the C-130 aircraft. Other products include propellers, wheels, brakes, secure communications, Head-up Displays/Enhanced Vision Systems (HUD/EVS) and advanced cargo loading systems. About Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), is a leader in technologically advanced and intelligent solutions for the global aerospace and defense industry. Created in 2018 by bringing together UTC Aerospace Systems and Rockwell Collins, Collins Aerospace has the capabilities, comprehensive portfolio and expertise to solve customers' toughest challenges and to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving global market. For more information, visit CollinsAerospace.com. About United Technologies Corporation United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. By combining a passion for science with precision engineering, the company is creating smart, sustainable solutions the world needs. For more information about the company, visit our website at www.utc.com or follow us on Twitter: @UTC. https://www.collinsaerospace.com/newsroom/News/2019/08/collins-to-support-l3harris-bringing-new-capabilities-to-cockpit-176-c130h-us-air-force

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  September 26, 2019 | International, C4ISR

  No AI For Nuclear Command & Control: JAIC’s Shanahan

  By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: “You will find no stronger proponent of integration of AI capabilities writ large into the Department of Defense,” Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan said here, “but there is one area where I pause, and it has to do with nuclear command and control.” In movies like WarGames and Terminator, nuclear launch controls are the first thing fictional generals hand over to AI. In real life, the director of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center says, that's the last thing he would integrate AI with. The military is beginning a massive multi-billion dollar modernization of its aging system for Nuclear Command, Control, & Communications (NC3), much of which dates to the Cold War. But the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is not involved with it. A recent article on the iconoclastic website War on the Rocks argued “America Needs A ‘Dead Hand',” a reference to the Soviet system designed to automatically order a nuclear launch if the human leadership was wiped out. “I read that,” Shanahan told the Kalaris Intelligence Conference here this afternoon. “My immediate answer is ‘No. We do not.'” Instead, the JAIC is very deliberately starting with relatively low-risk, non-lethal projects — predicting breakdowns in helicopter engines and mapping natural disasters — before moving on to combat-related functions such as intelligence analysis and targeting next year. On the Pentagon's timeline, AI will be coming to command posts before it is embedded in actual weapons, and even then the final decision to use lethal force will always remain in human hands. The standard term in the Pentagon now for human involvement with AI and weapons now is “human on the loop,” a shift from human IN the loop. That reflects greater stress on the advisory function of humans with AI and a recognition that domains like cyber require almost instantaneous responses that can't wait for a human. Hawkish skeptics say slowing down to ask human permission could cripple US robots against their less-restrained Russian or Chinese counterparts. Dovish skeptics say this kind of human control would be too easily bypassed. Shanahan does see a role for AI in applying lethal force once that human decision is made. “I'm not going to go straight to ‘lethal autonomous weapons systems,'” he said, “but I do want to say we will use artificial intelligence in our weapons systems... to give us a competitive advantage. It's to save lives and help deter war from happening in the first place.” The term “lethal autonomous weapons systems” was popularized by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which seeks a global ban on all AI weapons. Shanahan made clear his discomfort with formal arms control measures, as opposed to policies and international norms, which don't bind the US in the same way. “I'll be honest with you,” Shanahan said. “I don't like the term, and I do not use the term, ‘arms control' when it comes to AI. I think that's unhelpful when it comes to artificial intelligence: It's largely a commercial technology,” albeit with military applications. “I'm much more interested, at least as a starting point, in international rules and norms and behavior,” he continued. (Aside from the space is governed almost exclusively “It's extremely important to have those discussions.” “This is the ultimate human decision that needs to be made....nuclear command and control,” he said. “We have to be very careful. Knowing ...the immaturity of technology today, give us a lot of time to test and evaluate.” “Can we use artificial intelligence to make better decisions, to make more informed judgments about what might be happening, to reduce the potential for civilian casualties or collateral damage?” Shanahan said. “I'm an optimist. I believe you can. It will not eliminate it, never. It's war; bad things are going to happen.” While Shanahan has no illusions about AI enabling some kind of cleanly surgical future conflict, he doesn't expect a robo-dystopia, either. “The hype is a little dangerous, because it's uninformed most of the time, and sometimes it's a Hollywood-driven killer robots/Terminator/SkyNet worst case scenario,” he said. “I don't see that worst case scenario any time in my immediate future.” “I'm very comfortable saying our approach — even though it is emerging technology, even though it unfolds very quickly before our eyes — it will still be done in a deliberate and rigorous way so we know what we get when we field it,” Shanahan said. “As the JAIC director, I'm focused on really getting to the fielding,” he said, moving AI out of the lab into the real world — but one step at a time. “We're always going to start with limited narrow use cases. Say, can we take some AI capability and put it in a small quadcopter drone that will make it easier to clear out a cave, [and] really prove that it works before we ever get it to a [large] scale production.” “We will have a very clear understanding of what it can do and what it can't do,” he said. “That will be through experimentation, that will be through modeling and simulation, and that will be in wargames. We've done that with every piece of technology we've ever used, and I don't expect this to be any different.” The JAIC is even looking to hire an in-house ethicist of sorts, a position Shanahan has mentioned earlier but sought to clarify today. “It'll be someone who's a technical standards [expert] / ethicist,” he said. “As we develop the models and algorithms... they can look at that make sure the process is abiding by our rules of the road.” “I'm also interested in, down the road, getting some help from the outside on sort of those deeper philosophical questions,” he continued. “I don't focus on them day to day, because of my charter to field now, but it's clear we have to be careful about this.” “I do not see that same approach in Russia or China,” Shanahan said. “What sets us apart is... our focus on real rigor in test and evaluation, validation and verification, before we field capability that could have lives at stake.” https://breakingdefense.com/2019/09/no-ai-for-nuclear-command-control-jaics-shanahan