US State Dept OKs potential sale of Abrams main battle tanks to Romania for estimated $2.53 billion - Pentagon | Reuters

On the same subject

• 

  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/

• 

  October 2, 2019 | International, C4ISR

  INVISIO Awarded Five-Year Framework Agreement for up to SEK 290 Million From the U.S. Department of Defense

  STOCKHOLM, October 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - INVISIO has been awarded a five-year IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity) contract from the U.S. Department of Defense for communication and hearing protection systems. The framework agreement is for up to SEK 290 million over the time period, but no volumes are guaranteed. The Department of Defense has awarded INVISIO a five-year framework agreement for the supply of advanced communications and hearing protection systems to American troops. The maximum order value of the agreement over the five-year time period is USD 30 million, equivalent to approximately SEK 290 million. This is the second time the Department of Defense has awarded INVISIO a long-term contract. The new contract replaces the first one received in 2017 which expired earlier this year. The INVISIO systems provide enhanced communication capabilities in noisy environments while protecting the users hearing, which gives operational benefits and increased tactical advantages including improved situational awareness for the users. "We are very proud of receiving a new long-term contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. This contract and the size of it, together with our other U.S.-engagements confirms our market leading position", says Lars Højgard Hansen, CEO, INVISIO Communications. For more information, please contact: Lars Højgard Hansen CEO INVISIO Communications Mobile: +45-53-72-7722 | E-mail: lhh@invisio.com Michael Peterson Director IR & Corporate Communication INVISIO Communications Mobile: +45-53-72-7733 | E-mail: mpn@invisio.com This information is information that INVISIO Communications AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the CEO, on October 1, 2019, at 08:30 CEST. About INVISIO Communications AB (publ) INVISIO develops and sells advanced communication systems with hearing protection that enable professionals in noisy and mission critical environments to communicate and operate effectively. The company combines insights in acoustics and human hearing with broad engineering know-how in software, materials technology and integration. Sales are primarily via a global network of partners and resellers, as well as from the headquarters in Copenhagen and the sales offices in the USA, France and Italy. INVISIO's registered office is in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company's share is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (IVSO). Read more on the company's website, www.invisio.com. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/invisio-communications-ab/r/invisio-awarded-five-year-framework-agreement-for-up-to-sek-290-million-from-the-u-s--department-of-,c2921729

• 

  December 10, 2019 | International, Naval

  BREAKING: Marine Corps Planning Major Program Cuts

  By Jon Harper SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The Marine Corps intends to divest itself of legacy systems as it transforms into a more mobile and expeditionary force, the service's commandant said Dec. 7. In recent decades Marines have been busy fighting land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now they must prepare for a potential conflict in a naval environment against advanced adversaries such as China, Gen. David Berger told reporters at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. “We cannot wait any longer before we start adjusting our service to what we've got to be six, seven, eight years out,” he said. “We have lots of changes we have to make and ... we have to get rid of legacy things in the Marine Corps. We've got to go on a diet. We've got to get back on ship. We've got to become expeditionary again.” What types of legacy systems will be on the chopping block? “Big, heavy things,” Berger said. “Expensive things that we can't either afford to buy or afford to maintain over the life of it. Things that don't fit aboard ships. Things that can't fire hyper velocity projectiles. Things that don't have the range that we're going to need or the precision.” Mobility will be critical in future fights, he noted. Marines must be able to operate from ships or ashore, and move back and forth between domains. Other platforms that could see cuts include manned logistics vehicles and aircraft. “All those things we're going to trim down,” Berger said. The service is also looking to add new capabilities. The commandant did not identify specific systems that the Marines plan to buy, but he provided a flavor of the types of platforms that will be on the shopping list. “Think unmanned. Think expeditionary. Think very light. Think things that we can sustain forward without a huge logistical train,” Berger said. Unmanned logistics vehicles and aircraft are examples of new technologies that the service is interested in. Human beings will still be on the battlefield, Berger noted. “I just don't need them driving a truck delivering chow” if a self-driving platform could perform the task, he said. Drones could also deliver supplies. “Amazon does it. Why wouldn't we do it?” he asked. Unmanned combat aircraft are also on the wish list, he noted. The Marine Corps has been conducting wargames and simulations to help determine how the force should be redesigned for potential future combat scenarios that might occur 10 years out. “We're in the last stages of that,” Berger said. That effort will likely wrap up in late January or early February. Force composition changes will be made over 10 years, but some will begin next year, he said. Officials are examining “every part of our air-ground team,” Berger said. A wide range of capabilities are being looked at. “From individual equipment to crew served [weapons] to F-35s and everything in between.” The analysis will help determine which programs will be killed, trimmed or added, he said. The service needs new weapon systems that can find and kill enemy ships at range from ship or shore. “We have to become a naval force that's lethal in terms of putting at risk another naval force,” Berger said. In the future, large numbers of unmanned air and ground systems could function as motherships that launch other robotic vehicles and drones to conduct missions, he said. A major funding realignment is planned over the next five years. “You'll see a little bit of it” in the fiscal year 2021 budget blueprint, Berger said. “The big muscle movement — that will come in ‘22, ‘23, ‘24 in a big way.” https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/12/9/marine-corps-planning-major-program-cuts