Back to news

August 16, 2019 | International, C4ISR

The Pentagon's Research Arm Wants AI to Help Design More Secure Tech

The Pentagon is exploring how artificial intelligence can help build more digitally secure vehicles, weapons systems and other network-connected platforms in a fraction of the time it takes today.

For years, cyber experts have urged agencies to make security a priority when building new systems, but that's easier said than done, at least when it comes to military tech, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Virtually every piece of military hardware includes a digital component and understanding how adversaries might attack these so-called “cyber physical systems” before they're constructed requires a lot of manpower and computer modeling. Because the Defense Department works under tight deadlines, officials often limit the number of designs they consider, potentially passing up more effective but out-of-the-box options, according to DARPA.

But using artificial intelligence, the Pentagon could significantly accelerate the construction of cyber physical systems while also unlocking more effective—and yet unimagined—designs, the agency said.

On Tuesday, the agency kicked off a research initiative that will focus on building AI-powered tools that help the Pentagon rapidly assess different blueprints for cyber physical systems. According to DARPA, the tech developed under the Symbiotic Design for Cyber Physical Systems program would “be a game changer, and may result in a new generation of unexpected, counterintuitive design solutions.”

As it stands, the process for building cyber physical systems is decentralized, iterative and resource-intensive, officials said. Different teams design different parts of the system, and errors frequently arise as those components are pieced together, forcing the department to go back to the drawing board.

But with “AI co-designers,” the process would change dramatically: Humans would feed both project requirements and preliminary blueprints into the tech, and the tools would propose different designs for individual components of the system. Officials would then work with the machine to narrow down possible designs, and the system would test different component combinations to find the most effective overall system.

While today the Pentagon must constantly address vulnerabilities as they arise, using AI, officials would start building cyber physical systems with a blueprint that's already been thoroughly tested and optimized.

“We expect order of magnitude improvement in design productivity, but equally important, the appearance of surprises, in the discovery of unconventional but highly performant designs,” officials said.

DARPA plans to divide the program into three tracks, with teams working together to design the AI co-designer itself, develop a way for humans to interact with the system and build a training regimen to teach the AI to learn from the successes and failures of previous system design.

The program is expected to run for about four years, and interested vendors must submit their final proposals by Oct. 14

https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/pentagons-research-arm-wants-ai-help-design-more-secure-tech/159210/

On the same subject

  • Canada sending more equipment to Ukraine as full-scale war with Russia nears 2-year mark | CBC News

    January 23, 2024 | International, Aerospace

    Canada sending more equipment to Ukraine as full-scale war with Russia nears 2-year mark | CBC News

    Canada is contributing another $35 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine as the embattled Eastern European country's allies meet to discuss its future needs, and as Russia's full invasion edges toward the two-year mark.

  • Oracle gets go-ahead to host top secret Air Force data

    February 16, 2022 | International, C4ISR

    Oracle gets go-ahead to host top secret Air Force data

    Oracle this week announced it can now handle some of the Department of Defense's most sensitive data on one of its platforms, extending the cloud giant's reach in the national security sphere.

  • Ratier Figeac renforce son activité militaire

    September 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    Ratier Figeac renforce son activité militaire

    Collins Aerospace Systems a annoncé mardi avoir été sélectionné pour livrer des systèmes d'hélices NP2000 pour 30 Lockheed Martin C-130H supplémentaires de l'US Air National Guard (ANG) et de l'Air Force Reserve (AFR). La conception et la production des hélices seront assurées par Ratier-Figeac, filiale de Collins Aerospace. «Collins Aerospace est honoré de supporter l'US Air Force» a déclaré Jean-François Chanut, directeur général Propeller Systems chez Collins Aerospace, et président de Ratier Figeac. «Notre système innovant NP2000 intègre des technologies de pointe plus intelligentes, conçues pour améliorer les performances et la disponibilité des appareils tout en augmentant le confort et la sécurité de l'équipage. Nous continuons de travailler au côté de l'Air Force pour assurer les meilleures performances et taux de disponibilité de leur flotte C-130», ajoute-t-il. Air & Cosmos, le Journal de l'Aviation et L'Usine Nouvelle du 16 septembre

All news