Retour aux nouvelles

2 octobre 2020 | International, C4ISR

Future Defense Task Force: Scrap obsolete weapons and boost AI

WASHINGTON ― A bipartisan congressional panel is recommending that the Pentagon must “identify, replace, and retire costly and ineffective legacy weapons platforms,” and prioritize artificial intelligence, supply chain resiliency and cyberwarfare in order to compete with China and Russia.

The House's Future of Defense Task Force's 87-page report issued Tuesday echoed the accepted wisdom that the Pentagon must expand investments in modern technologies and streamline its cumbersome acquisition practices or risk losing its technological edge against competitors.

The task force is co-chaired by House Armed Services Committee members Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., who both signaled they'll champion elements of the report in future defense authorization legislation. While lawmakers are broadly in favor, efforts to retire specific platforms often meet resistance on Capitol Hill.

On weapons systems, the task force offered some practical steps to this end. Congress, it said, should commission the RAND Corporation, or similar entity, and the Government Accountability Office to study legacy platforms within the Defense Department and determine their relevance and resiliency to emerging threats over the next 50 years.

Then a panel should be convened, comprising Congress, the Department of Defense, and representatives from the industrial base, to make recommendations on which platforms should be retired, replaced or recapitalized, the report reads.

Investments in science and technology research need to be prioritized nationally, and at the Pentagon level such investments should meet 3.4 percent of the overall defense budget, as recommended by the Defense Science Board. Funding ought to be expanded at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, national and defense research laboratories and partnering universities, the report says.

The report recommended that each of the military services ought to spend at least one percent of their overall budgets on the integration of new technologies.

The Pentagon must, the report says, scale up efforts to leverage private sector innovation, which is leading the government. The report calls for a tenfold increase in spending for Defense Innovation Unit, AFWERX, Army Futures Command and others ― and more collaborative opportunities like Hacking for Defense.

The report calls for a Manhattan Project for artificial intelligence, saying DoD must go further than its increased investment in AI and Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to assist with the transition and deployment of AI capabilities.

“Using the Manhattan Project as a model, the United States must undertake and win the artificial intelligence race by leading in the invention and deployment of AI while establishing the standards for its public and private use,” the report's authors wrote.

(The Manhattan project is the U.S.-led World War II-era research and development effort that produced the first nuclear weapons.)

The report calls for every major defense acquisition program to evaluate at least one AI or autonomous alternative prior to funding. Plus, all new major weapons purchases ought to be “AI-ready and nest with existing and planned joint all-domain command and control networks,” it says.

Warning the country's supply chain is one of its “greatest national security and economic vulnerabilities,” the report calls for a national supply chain intelligence center under the Office of Director of National Intelligence and the elimination of single points of failure within DoD's supply chain.

The task force, launched last October, includes several lawmakers with practical national security experience: Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., a former Air Force officer who studied technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; as well as Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Michael Waltz, R-Fla., who have served in senior Pentagon policy jobs.

HASC members Reps. Susan Davis, D-Calif., Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., and Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., also served on the task force.

In a statement, Moulton said the bipartisan plan could be used, no matter the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential and congressional elections. “America needs a plan to confront the dual threats of Russia's aggression and China's rise. This is it,” he said.

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/09/29/future-defense-task-force-scrap-obsolete-weapons-and-boost-ai/

Sur le même sujet

  • Une législation américaine bloque la vente de «Rafale» à l'Egypte par la France

    20 février 2018 | International, Aérospatial

    Une législation américaine bloque la vente de «Rafale» à l'Egypte par la France

    L'information a été révélée par le journal économique français La Tribune. Une nouvelle vente de « Rafale » en Egypte serait bloquée à cause des Etats-Unis. Washington brandit sa législation sur les exportations d'armement pour compromettre la vente de missiles de croisière européen « Scalp » que l'armée égyptienne souhaite à tout prix monter sur ses « Rafale ». Jusqu'à la révolution égyptienne, Le Caire était un très bon client des Etats-Unis, mais les Français et les Russes ont effectué depuis une impressionnante percée dans ce pays. Les autorités françaises essayeraient donc de trouver un arrangement avec les Américains, pour qu'ils autorisent l'exportation vers l'Egypte, de composants fabriqués aux Etats-Unis entrant dans la fabrication de missiles européens. C'est l'un des arguments de poids, des industriels de l'armement sur le vieux continent. « Acheter Européen, pour se soustraire à la domination américaine ». Mais les choses ne sont pas si simples, car les Etats-Unis disposent d'une carte maitresse dans leur jeu, la norme ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation) destinée à réguler leurs ventes d'armes dans le monde. Le problème, c'est qu'elle ne concerne pas uniquement les matériels fabriqués aux Etats-Unis, mais qu'elle peut s'appliquer à tout système d'arme étranger incorporant un composant américain. Dans le cas de l'Egypte, Washington s'offusquerait de la vente de missiles MBDA Scalp assemblés dans une usine du Loir-et-Cher dans le centre de la France mais dans lesquels se cachent des éléments fabriqués aux Etats-Unis. Il s'agit souvent de petites puces électroniques. La question s'était déjà posée quand la France voulait vendre des Rafale au Brésil, mais cela n'avait finalement pas pesé significativement sur la négociation. Joint par RFI, le Groupe Dassault certifie qu'il n'y a pas de composants américains dans ses avions de combat, mais qu'il y en a effectivement dans les missiles de croisières qu'emporte le Rafale. L'application de la norme ITAR, n'est toutefois pas toujours aussi rigide. Sous l'administration Obama, la France n'avait pas eu trop à s'inquiéter des blocages de Washington pour vendre des armes au Moyen-Orient mais avec Donald Trump la donne est différente. http://www.rfi.fr/economie/20180216-une-legislation-americaine-bloque-vente-rafales-egypte-france

  • Wars raise profit outlook for US defense industry in 2024

    18 décembre 2023 | International, Terrestre

    Wars raise profit outlook for US defense industry in 2024

  • These 7 Chinese companies each topped $5B in defense sales — and could rival American firms

    24 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre

    These 7 Chinese companies each topped $5B in defense sales — and could rival American firms

    By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — With China now the second-largest spender on defense in the world, Chinese companies are logically going to rank among the largest defense firms. But quantifying that number has proven incredibly difficult thanks to the opaque nature of both government spending and the firms themselves. Now, a London-based think tank has concluded that seven Chinese firms would rank among the top 20 defense companies in the world, each breaking $5 billion in defense revenues — a proportion that rivals any one nation outside the U.S. Lucie Beraud-Sudreau and Meia Nouwens, two researchers with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, looked at eight key defense firms from China — the China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), China Electronics Technology Enterprise (CETC), China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO), China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC), China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). The researchers looked at the largest defense firms and key subsidiaries, excluding a pair of nuclear-focused Chinese companies, classifying each as defense- or civilian-focused. Then they used the differentiation to calculate how much of each company's total revenues was derived from defense-related sales. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/top-100/2018/08/23/these-7-chinese-companies-each-topped-5b-in-defense-sales-and-could-rival-american-firms

Toutes les nouvelles