U.S. approves $120 mln sale to maintain Taiwanese warships

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  July 16, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Thales tests FASGW(L) weapon system for Royal Navy

  Thales has performed firing trials for the Future Anti Surface Guided Weapon (Light) (FASGW[L]) programme for the British Royal Navy. Conducted at Royal Artillery Air Defence Range at Manorbier in Pembrokeshire, the trials are part of the FASGW(L) programme's integration testing phase. The programme includes testing of all parts of the FASGW(L) weapon system, including Thales' lightweight multirole missile (LMM), the launcher system and all key equipment of the Royal Navy's Agusta Westland AW159 Wildcat helicopter. In June 2014, Thales won a contract to develop, qualify and integrate the FASGW(L) system for the Navy's Wildcat helicopter. The system consists of a five-barrel launcher and a laser guidance system. Set to enter service in 2020, LMM is a precision strike missile capable of being fired from a variety of land, sea and airborne tactical platforms. The missile will be called Martlet in the Royal Navy. It is designed to defeat mobile maritime threats such as small ships and inshore attack craft. LMM will offer improved protection for Royal Navy personnel and important sea assets, such as the Queen Elizabeth Carrier. During trials, Thales fired six LMMs at a small boat target at sea at a distance of 4.5km. The missiles feature telemetry software to facilitate collection of test data. Information will be used to analyse the performance of the Thales-designed launcher, the guidance system and missile. In a statement, Thales said: “The FASGW(L) system accurately guided all missiles to the targets and provided extensive data on the excellent performance of all elements of the ground set-up and inflight performance of the missile. “The successful achievement of the ground firings is a major milestone and key to progressing to future testing including air firing trials later in 2019 and culminating in qualification and verification in 2020.” The Royal Navy is also fielding Sea Venom/ANL helicopter-launched anti-ship missile to address its FASGW(H) requirements. MBDA is delivering the Sea Venom/ANL missile under a contract jointly awarded by the UK and France. https://www.naval-technology.com/news/thales-tests-fasgwl-weapon-system-for-royal-navy/

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  December 31, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  US Spies Want to Know How to Spot Compromised AI

  BY DAVE GERSHGORN What if you were training an AI, and an adversary slipped a few altered images into its study set? The US government's research arm for intelligence organizations, IARPA, is looking for ideas on how to detect “Trojan” attacks on artificial intelligence, according to government procurement documents. Here's the problem the agency wants to solve: At a simple level, modern image-recognition AI learns from analyzing many images of an object. If you want to train an algorithm to detect pictures of a road signs, you have to supply it with pictures of different signs from all different angles. The algorithm learns the relationships between the pixels of the images, and how the structures and patterns of stop signs differ from those of speed-limit signs. But suppose that, during the AI-training phase, an adversary slipped a few extra images (Trojan horses) into your speed-limit-sign detector, ones showing stop signs with sticky notes on them. Now, if the adversary wants to trick your AI in the real world into thinking a stop sign is a speed-limit sign, it just has to put a sticky note on it. Imagine this in the world of autonomous cars; it could be a nightmare scenario. The kinds of tools that IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) wants would be able to detect issues or anomalies after the algorithm has been trained to recognize different objects in images. This isn't the only kind of attack on AI that's possible. Security researchers have also warned about inherent flaws in the way artificial intelligence perceives the world, making it possible to alter physical objects like stop signs to make AI algorithms miscategorize them without ever messing with how it was trained, called “adversarial examples.” While neither Trojan attacks nor the adversarial examples are known to have been used by malicious parties in the real world, researchers have said they're increasingly possible. IARPA is looking at a short timeline as well, expecting the program to conclude after a maximum of two years. https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/12/us-spies-want-know-how-spot-compromised-ai/153826

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  July 3, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  DoD stands up its artificial intelligence hub

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON – The Defense Department has formally ordered the creation of a new hub for artificial intelligence research with Dana Deasy, the Pentagon's new chief information officer, taking the lead. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan ordered the move in a June 27 memo. The Pentagon's goal is to launch a series of AI projects known as National Mission Initiatives within 90 days – as well as taking over the controversial Project Maven. The office will be known as the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), with the goal of enabling “teams across DoD to swiftly deliver new AI-enabled capabilities and effectively experiment with new operating concepts in support of DoD's military missions and business functions,” according to DoD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza. Put another way, the group will have the “overarching goal of accelerating the delivery of AI-enabled capabilities, scaling the Department-wide impact of AI, and synchronizing DoD AI activities to expand Joint Force advantages,” according to a copy of the memo posted by Breaking Defense. “This effort is a Department priority. Speed and security are of the essence,” Shanahan wrote. “I expect all offices and personnel to provide all reasonable support necessary to make rapid enterprise-wide AI adoption a reality.” Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan directed the DoD Chief Information Officer to standup the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) in order to enable teams across DoD to swiftly deliver new AI-enabled capabilities and effectively experiment with new operating concepts in support of DoD's military missions and business functions. The JAIC marks the second major initiative Pentagon leaders handed over to Deasy, a former CIO with JPMorgan Chase who has only been at the Pentagon for a few weeks. Deasy also is in charge of managing the department's JEDI cloud computing contract. The idea of standing up an AI center was first confirmed by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on April 12, but it has been championed by the Defense Innovation Board, a group of outside experts ho advice the secretary on potential updates to how the Pentagon handles evolving technologies. According to Michael Griffin, the head of Pentagon research and engineering, the department counts 592 projects as having some form of AI in them. However, Griffin said in April 18 testimony that he did not believe every one of those projects makes sense to roll into some sort of AI hub. That concern appears to be reflected in Shanahan's memo, which orders that any AI project with a budget of $15 million or more should be coordinated with the services in order to ensure “DoD is creating Department-wide advantages.” In terms of budget, Shanahan ordered the Pentagon's comptroller to find options for funding during the current fiscal year, but the major focus is on driving resources for fiscal year 2019 and beyond. Given the support for artificial intelligence research on the Hill, it is likely the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY19 will include some funding for the new office. The movement of Project Maven to the JAIC is notable. A DoD initiative to accelerate the integration of big data and machine learning, largely drawing on video feeds from unmanned systems, Maven in the last month has become a poster child for the clash of cultures between the defense department and Silicon Valley. Google was working hand-in-hand with the Pentagon on the project, until a backlash from the company's employees, who argued in an open letter signed by more than 3,000 workers that it did not want to “build warfare technology.” Moving the program to the JAIC may be an attempt to keep the project underway without Google's participation. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2018/06/29/dod-stands-up-its-artificial-intelligence-hub/