Replacing Canada's Air Tanking Fleet - Second Line of Defense

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  June 19, 2019 | International, C4ISR, Other Defence

  Can AI help limited information have endless potential?

  By: Kelsey D. Atherton Humans are remarkably good at choosing to act on limited information. Computers, less so. A new DARPA program wants to train artificial intelligence to process and evaluate information like humans do, and produce actionable results on far smaller datasets than presently done. It's a program of such important DARPA's giving it VIP status, or a least VIP as an acronym: Virtual Intelligence Processing. “Successful integration of next-generation AI into DoD applications must be able to deal with incomplete, sparse and noisy data, as well as unexpected circumstances that might arise while solving real world problems,” reads a solicitation posted June 14. “Thus, there is need for new mathematical models for computing leading to AI algorithms that are efficient and robust, can learn new concepts with very few examples, and can guide the future development of novel hardware to support them.” To create these mathematical models, DARPA wants partners to look inward, creating AI inspired by the robust and massive parallelism seen in the human neocortex. If it is the architecture of the brain that makes humans so especially skilled at processing information quickly, then it is an architecture worth studying. “In order to reverse engineer the human brain,” the solicitation continues, calmly, “we need to apply new mathematical models for computing that are complete and transparent and can inform next-generation processors that are better suited for third-wave AI.” It is DARPA's nature to inject funding into problem areas it sees as both yielding future results and not presently served by the market, and this is not different. The solicitation explicitly asks for mathematical models that have not already been the focus of AI development. It's also looking for models that can inform the development of future hardware, rather than programs that can run on existing machines. DARPA is interested in how the hardware works in simulation, but wants partners to hold off on actually making the hardware for the model. So, the plan goes: create a mathematical model, inspired by brains, to process information on a small and limited data set, and then design it for hardware that doesn't exist yet. Easy as that sounds, the solicitation also asks proposers to talk about the limitations of the algorithms when applied to military tasks, and specifically limitations related to accuracy, data, computing power and robustness. Working from limited information is an expected future of military machines going forward. Between electronic warfare, denied environments and the very nature of battlefield events as rare and hard to record moments, doing more with on-board processing of limited data should enable greater autonomy. Even in the rare case where a weapon system transmits data back for algorithm refinement, that data set will be orders of magnitude smaller than the big data sets used to train most commercial machine learning tools. Should a proposer's idea be accepted and they follow through both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project, the total award is set at $1 million. A tidy sum, for anyone who can figure out the math to make a future computer run on sparse information as effectively as a human brain. https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2019/06/18/can-brain-inspired-ai-run-on-lean-data/

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  October 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Europeans propose siccing self-learning drone swarms on air defenses

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — A European consortium has pitched the idea of grooming intelligent drone swarms to confuse, disable and destroy enemy air defenses. The proposal is part of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research effort by the European Union to improve collaboration on among member states. Under the heading “Emerging Game Changers,” EU officials asked companies earlier this year to submit ideas for “promising breakthrough technologies” in the field of artificial intelligence for defense applications. The idea behind “SEAD Swarm” is to create the necessary algorithms that would enable a mass of aerial drones to inspect the characteristics of air defense systems, distribute the information within the swarm and derive a plan of attack against weak points. Actions taken could include blinding radar sensors, overwhelming anti-aircraft fire with kamikaze-type tactics, or attacking sites with explosive or electronic-warfare payloads. The acronym SEAD is short for “suppression of enemy air defenses,” military platforms that often expose pilots of manned aircraft to significant risk of getting shot down. The proposed project comes in the wake of Finland designating advances in AI a key objective for its six-month term leading the Council of the European Union. The idea is backed by a consortium of 12 private companies, national research institutions and universities from six countries, with Finnish company Insta as the lead. A decision from European decision-makers on the award of an approximately $2 million grant to start the project is expected in the next few months. Consortium officials stress that nothing would be built during the initial phase of the project. Instead, the idea is to incubate the necessary “swarm logic” and learning algorithms in a simulation environment, where scenarios can be gamed out and quickly adapted, Ari Kosonen, a senior systems engineer at Insta, told Defense News. Letting the drone swarm and air defense systems battle it out in a controlled cyberspace environment would yield patterns of problem-solving that can continuously improve both the attackers' and the defenders' performance, Kosonen said. In addition, thinking through the idea on a purely theoretical level would allow proper consideration for ethical and legal questions that arise whenever AI is weaponized, he added. If adopted by the EU, the participating countries of Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Austria would detail military officials to an advisory board to help ensure the planned simulations reflect real-world combat situations. That includes resisting the urge of crafting scenarios that are too clear-cut in allowing judgments about when to apply force and when to stand down, said Christian Brandlhuber, a senior adviser at consortium member Reply AG in Munich. “Does this work in an environment where our situational awareness is less than perfect?” Therein lies the novelty of the SEAD Swarm idea, Brandlhuber argued: Working through the rules of engagement first, only later considering requirements and finally establish concrete acquisition plans could help bring AI-enabled military technology into the EU-wide defense conversation. “There were heated discussions in the consortium about how pronounced the legal and ethical side should be,” Brandlhuber said. Dicey situations could arise, for example, when drones are cut off from communicating with human decision-makers in the final phase of an attack, while the prerequisite is to have a person in the loop for pulling the trigger. “There is a lot of uncertainty in this,” Brandlhuber said, though he argued analysts should strive to understand the complexity that comes with combining drones and AI in a military context. “You can't determine any of this a-priori.” Notably, the consortium includes sensor and hardware manufacturers, like Diehl Defence of Germany and Milrem of Estonia, that could be tapped to build prototypes if the SEAD Swarm project is selected to go forward. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/10/22/europeans-propose-siccing-self-learning-drone-swarms-on-air-defenses/

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  July 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval

  Funding for naval drones in the NDAA will encourage innovation

  By: Brian Wynne Unmanned maritime systems are increasingly allowing military and commercial users alike to go farther and deeper than ever before. Initially proven by the military for their dependability and reliability, they are now also disrupting the commercial sector and enabling applications from mapping to surveillance to port security. In recognition of the many benefits UMS stand to offer, the president's budget for fiscal 2021 requested strong support for the U.S. Navy's unmanned programs. Now, as Congress considers the National Defense Authorization Act for FY21, it should fully fund UMS research and development efforts to allow innovation to flourish and for military and commercial operators alike to reap the benefits. As president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, I have witnessed the growth in UMS innovation firsthand. Our membership includes organizations from across the defense industrial base that support the growing integration of unmanned and autonomous systems in the force protecting the United States. Their investments have led to substantive achievements in the development of autonomy, reliability, propulsion and integration of advanced payloads and sensors. Fielding UMS will ensure continued U.S. naval dominance and support the industrial base. Unfortunately, Congress is currently considering disrupting funding to the research and development of this vital technology. Both the House and Senate versions of the NDAA drastically cut R&D funding for medium and large unmanned surface vessels, with the Senate eliminating all requested funding for the program entirely. The severe reduction in funding considered in the FY21 NDAA would eliminate jobs, drive many small companies out of business, and cause larger companies to shift their R&D investments to more stable opportunities. AUVSI is also taking issue with Congress' misunderstanding of UMS operations, focusing on the reliability of individual components rather than that of the system as a whole, ignoring the operational context in which the UMS will be used. Unmanned systems have well-documented reliability in the commercial sector performing in a range of demanding and complex environments, including deep-water exploration. If Congress attempts to apply unique reliability requirements to UMS use by the U.S. Navy, it will only serve to drive up cost, decrease competition and significantly delay fielding of the systems to the war fighters that need them. While Congress has previously demonstrated its support for the growth and integration of unmanned systems in the future Navy fleet architecture, its reliability concerns and proposed funding cuts in this instance are misplaced. Industry has determined that the wholeness of autonomy is critical to mission duration and success, and the emphasis on testing reliability should be on that wholeness rather than focusing on individual components. What's more, the Navy's R&D effort is already working to field systems that can prove reliability in a realistic operational context. The utilization of unmanned technology is inevitable and timely, but appropriate levels of R&D funding are needed to field this critical capability. Industry has invested significant resources to support the Navy's UMS programs thus far and will continue to do so if these programs are adequately funded by Congress. Conversely, proposed funding cuts will drive industry to move its investments away from UMS to other markets, drive small, developing businesses out of the unmanned maritime business, and cost jobs throughout the developing unmanned industrial base. Congress should therefore adopt the funding levels set out in the president's FY21 budget request without any cuts to ensure that innovation will flourish, R&D can continue unabated and our nation's Navy can take full advantage of the potential that UMS stand to offer. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/07/24/funding-for-naval-drones-in-the-ndaa-will-encourage-innovation/