July 4, 2023 | International, C4ISR
Nordic firms ride wave of cyber M&A activity
The mergers and acquisitions are taking place as Sweden seeks NATO membership, and neighboring Finland this year joined the alliance.
February 3, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Pentagon’s top artificial intelligence official to retire
By: Mike Gruss and Jeff Martin
The Pentagon plans to announce Jan. 31 that Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, the Department of Defense's top artificial intelligence official, will retire from the Air Force this summer, C4ISRNET has learned.
Shanahan has served as the first director of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, an effort to accelerate the Pentagon's adoption and integration of AI at scale, since December 2018.
Lt. Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesman for the center, confirmed the retirement in a Jan. 30 email and said a search for the next director is underway.
Shanahan previously oversaw the Pentagon's algorithmic warfare cross-functional team, better known as Project Maven, a pathfinder effort to apply AI and machine learning in analyzing full-motion video.
Pentagon leaders created the JAIC after noting nearly 600 projects and programs across the department had come to touch on artificial intelligence in some way. Officials wanted a central hub to help facilitate progress. In late 2018, Dana Deasy, the Defense Department's chief information officer, appointed Shanahan to lead the new center.
During his tenure, Shanahan served as a voice of reason on how artificial intelligence could be used by the military and avoided the often popular science fiction comparisons that accompany discussions of AI. In an interview with C4ISRNET last year, Shanahan said the center has focused on using artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance efforts and to improve humanitarian relief. He also advocated for a greater understanding of the subject.
“On one side of the emerging tech equation, we need far more national security professionals who understand what this technology can do or, equally important, what it cannot do,” Shanahan said during a talk at the Naval War College in December. “On the other side of the equation, we desperately need more people who grasp the societal implications of new technology, who are capable of looking at this new data-driven world through geopolitical, international relations, humanitarian and even philosophical lenses,” he said.
Lawmakers approved $183 million for the center in the fiscal year 2020 budget.
Shanahan also has been a vocal proponent for improving the department's cloud capabilities and specifically the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, which is expected to provide the infrastructure the Pentagon needs to boost artificial intelligence.
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September 24, 2023 | International, Aerospace, Land, C4ISR
Canadian military sets stage for purchase of drones and Hellfire missiles; program could cost up to $5 billion
The procurement program could cost up to $5 billion.
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June 11, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Yokota airmen improve gas mask with 3D printer, potentially saving Air Force $8 million or more
By SETH ROBSON YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Tokyo-based airmen used a 3D printer and American ingenuity to modify a standard-issue gas mask into an aircraft oxygen system, potentially saving millions of dollars and improving aircrew safety. The idea of hooking up the M-50 joint-service, general-purpose mask to an aircraft was hatched during brainstorming sessions by airmen from Yokota's 374th Maintenance Squadron and 374th Operations Support Squadron. “We took the mask and added some off-the-shelf parts and some 3D-printed parts and converted it into a piece of equipment that can work in an aircraft,” said Senior Master Sgt. David Siemiet, an aircrew flight equipment superintendent. Gear used now — the Aircrew Eye/Respiratory Protection System, or AERPS — is expensive, heavy and fault prone with long waits for replacement parts, said C-130 Hercules pilot Capt. Matthew Kohl. When the ubiquitous, light and cheap M-50 is connected to an oxygen system, air flows through its chemical filters to the user, whose eyes are protected by goggles, Siemiet said. To build their prototype, the airmen looked at an Army system that hooks soldiers' masks to air blowers to overcome the stifling environment inside a battle tank. The airmen came up with a cap that blocks airflow into one side of the mask and an adaptor that allows it to attach to a hose that can be plugged into an oxygen system. The modification, which the airman call “AERPS Ultra,” uses a few standard parts and two components made on a 3D printer that aircraft materials technology craftsman Sen. Airman David Petrich bought for a few hundred dollars of his own money. It costs only about 75 cents to modify one mask, and the project has the potential to save the Air Force at least $8 million and countless man hours, according to Tech. Sgt. Eric Lundeen, another aircraft materials technology craftsman involved in the project. The M-50 weighs less than a pound, a lot less than the 40 pounds of chemical-protection gear now used by aircrew. Unlike the current system, the lighter masks don't need a power supply that must be hooked to on-board electricity and uses expensive batteries, Petrich said. “You can wear the mask onto the plane and latch in and you are good to go,” he said. The mask modifications can be done on base without the need to pay a contractor, Siemiet added. https://www.stripes.com/news/yokota-airmen-improve-gas-mask-with-3d-printer-potentially-saving-air-force-8-million-or-more-1.531504