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  August 20, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Here are the intelligence community’s top 6 priorities

  By: Mark Pomerleau For the first time in recent history, the intelligence community has established a common vision with common operating principles that reaches all of its disparate agencies. “The leaders of the intelligence community about a year ago got together and we – for the first time I can recall – got together and established a common vision for ourselves called IC 2025,” Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence, said Aug. 15 at the DoDIIS conference in Omaha, Nebraska. The vision, she said, explains what the community needs to fulfill the IC's mission and how the community must work together. Gordon had previously discussed these priorities during a presentation at the GEOINT symposium in April. The priorities include: ♦ Relying on Automated Intelligence using Machines, or AIM. The IC is establishing an AIM center – in concert with the Department of Defense's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center – to help the community harness the power of technology. Gordon said she prefers the “AIM” lexicon because she is interested in outcomes, not technology. One such outcome is the commitment that no U.S. or allied service member will ever be at a disadvantage on the battlefield because and adversary can make better use of data, she said in Omaha. ♦ Developing the right workforce. Gordon said in April that if the intel community is going to harness the power of machines to use more of the data productively, then they have to invest more in humans. ♦ Developing a comprehensive cyber strategy. Cyber is not a thing, it is a vehicle by which so many imperatives are addressed, Gordon said in April, adding that it includes cyber protection. “If you hear about it in public it's who's in charge. I think that is a total misnomer,” she said. “We really have to address the cyber attack and the cyber posturing that is happening to us every day and help this administration figure out the response we need.” ♦ Creating a modern data management infrastructure. Pursing data without a purpose, Gordon said at the GEOINT symposium, is probably not going to get the community there but not understanding that data management is the key to any of the elements of success they portend will not put efforts in the right area. ♦ Increasing and leveraging partnerships with the private sector. This is an area most all leaders in the defense and intelligence space acknowledge is necessary for success. ♦ Improving acquisition agility. Part of this comes from security clearance reform, she said in April, describing security clearance reform at DoDIIS as one of the existential threats within the IC. Full article: https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/dodiis/2018/08/17/here-are-the-intelligence-communitys-top-6-priorities

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  July 7, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  L3Harris building demonstration constellation for the Air Force

  Nathan Strout L3Harris has successfully launched a new demonstrator satellite for the U.S. Air Force, the company announced July 6. The small satellite is part of a constellation of end-to-end small satellites the company is developing for the Air Force. While the company declined to discuss launch details due to the classified nature of the program, L3Harris noted in a press release that it is the prime contractor for the “responsive constellation contract” and is responsible for designing, developing, building, testing and deploying the satellites. “L3Harris has developed and supported various aspects of satellite missions over the last several decades as a component supplier or hosted payload,” said Ed Zoiss, president of space and airborne systems at L3Harris. “In collaboration with the U.S. Air Force, we pulled the pieces together to successfully plan, develop and execute an affordable, high-performance space mission, which is part of a responsive constellation contract.” The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) satellite system features a reprogrammable payload that will allow operators to change the satellites' missions while on orbit. The payload will also utilize L3Harris' High Compaction Ratio unfurlable X-band antenna to enable high-speed data communication. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/07/06/l3harris-building-demonstration-constellation-for-the-air-force/

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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/