28 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

Inside the Army’s futuristic test of its battlefield artificial intelligence in the desert

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. — After weeks of work in the oppressive Arizona desert heat, the U.S. Army carried out a series of live fire engagements Sept. 23 at Yuma Proving Ground to show how artificial intelligence systems can work together to automatically detect threats, deliver targeting data and recommend weapons responses at blazing speeds.

Set in the year 2035, the engagements were the culmination of Project Convergence 2020, the first in a series of annual demonstrations utilizing next generation AI, network and software capabilities to show how the Army wants to fight in the future.

The Army was able to use a chain of artificial intelligence, software platforms and autonomous systems to take sensor data from all domains, transform it into targeting information, and select the best weapon system to respond to any given threat in just seconds.

Army officials claimed that these AI and autonomous capabilities have shorted the sensor to shooter timeline — the time it takes from when sensor data is collected to when a weapon system is ordered to engaged — from 20 minutes to 20 seconds, depending on the quality of the network and the number of hops between where it's collected and its destination.

“We use artificial intelligence and machine learning in several ways out here,” Brigadier General Ross Coffman, director of the Army Futures Command's Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team, told visiting media.

“We used artificial intelligence to autonomously conduct ground reconnaissance, employ sensors and then passed that information back. We used artificial intelligence and aided target recognition and machine learning to train algorithms on identification of various types of enemy forces. So, it was prevalent throughout the last six weeks.”

The first exercise featured is informative of how the Army stacked together AI capabilities to automate the sensor to shooter pipeline. In that example, the Army used space-based sensors operating in low Earth orbit to take images of the battleground. Those images were downlinked to a TITAN ground station surrogate located at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Washington, where they were processed and fused by a new system called Prometheus.

Currently under development, Prometheus is an AI system that takes the sensor data ingested by TITAN, fuses it, and identifies targets. The Army received its first Prometheus capability in 2019, although it's targeting accuracy is still improving, according to one Army official at Project Convergence. In some engagements, operators were able to send in a drone to confirm potential threats identified by Prometheus.

From there, the targeting data was delivered to a Tactical Assault Kit — a software program that gives operators an overhead view of the battlefield populated with both blue and red forces. As new threats are identified by Prometheus or other systems, that data is automatically entered into the program to show users their location. Specific images and live feeds can be pulled up in the environment as needed.

All of that takes place in just seconds.

Once the Army has its target, it needs to determine the best response. Enter the real star of the show: the FIRES Synchronization to Optimize Responses in Multi-Domain Operations, or FIRESTORM.

“What is FIRESTORM? Simply put it's a computer brain that recommends the best shooter, updates the common operating picture with the current enemy situation, and friendly situation, admissions the effectors that we want to eradicate the enemy on the battlefield,” said Coffman.

Army leaders were effusive in praising FIRESTORM throughout Project Convergence. The AI system works within the Tactical Assault Kit. Once new threats are entered into the program, FIRESTORM processes the terrain, available weapons, proximity, number of other threats and more to determine what the best firing system to respond to that given threat. Operators can assess and follow through with the system's recommendations with just a few clicks of the mouse, sending orders to soldiers or weapons systems within seconds of identifying a threat.

Just as important, FIRESTORM provides critical target deconfliction, ensuring that multiple weapons systems aren't redundantly firing on the same threat. Right now, that sort of deconfliction would have to take place over a phone call between operators. FIRESTORM speeds up that process and eliminates any potential misunderstandings.

In that first engagement, FIRESTORM recommended the use of an Extended-Range Cannon Artillery. Operators approved the algorithm's choice, and promptly the cannon fired a projectile at the target located 40 kilometers away. The process from identifying the target to sending those orders happened faster than it took the projectile to reach the target.

Perhaps most surprising is how quickly FIRESTORM was integrated into Project Convergence.

“This computer program has been worked on in New Jersey for a couple years. It's not a program of record. This is something that they brought to my attention in July of last year, but it needed a little bit of work. So we put effort, we put scientists and we put some money against it,” said Coffman. “The way we used it is as enemy targets were identified on the battlefield — FIRESTORM quickly paired those targets with the best shooter in position to put effects on it. This is happening faster than any human could execute. It is absolutely an amazing technology.”

Dead Center

Prometheus and FIRESTORM weren't the only AI capabilities on display at Project Convergence.

In other scenarios, a MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone was able to identify and target a threat using the on-board Dead Center payload. With Dead Center, the Gray Eagle was able to process the sensor data it was collecting, identifying a threat on its own without having to send the raw data back to a command post for processing and target identification. The drone was also equipped with the Maven Smart System and Algorithmic Inference Platform, a product created by Project Maven, a major Department of Defense effort to use AI for processing full motion video

According to one Army officer, the capabilities of the Maven Smart System and Dead Center overlap, but placing both on the modified Gray Eagle at Project Convergence helped them to see how they compared.

With all of the AI engagements, the Army ensured there was a human in the loop to provide oversight of the algorithms' recommendations. When asked how the Army was implementing the Department of Defense's principles of ethical AI use adopted earlier this year, Coffman pointed to the human barrier between AI systems and lethal decisions.

“So obviously the technology exists, to remove the human right the technology exists, but the United States Army, an ethical based organization — that's not going to remove a human from the loop to make decisions of life or death on the battlefield, right? We understand that,” explained Coffman. “The artificial intelligence identified geo-located enemy targets. A human then said, Yes, we want to shoot at that target.”

https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2020/09/25/the-army-just-conducted-a-massive-test-of-its-battlefield-artificial-intelligence-in-the-desert/

Sur le même sujet

26 juin 2020 | International, Terrestre

Japan confirms it’s scrapping US missile defense system
By: Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press TOKYO — Japan's National Security Council has endorsed plans to cancel the deployment of two costly land-based U.S. missile defense systems aimed at bolstering the country's capability against threats from North Korea, the country's defense minister said Thursday. Taro Kono said the country will now revise its missile defense program and scale up its entire defense posture. The council made its decision Wednesday, and now the government will need to enter negotiations with the U.S. about what to do with payments and the purchase contract already made for the Aegis Ashore systems. Kono announced the plan to scrap the systems earlier this month after it was found that the safety of one of the two planned host communities could not be ensured without a hardware redesign that would be too time consuming and costly. “We couldn't move forward with this project, but still there are threats from North Korea,” Kono said at a news conference Thursday. Japan will discuss ways to better protect the country and the people from the North's missiles and other threats, he said. The Japanese government in 2017 approved adding the two Aegis Ashore systems to enhance the country's current defenses consisting of Aegis-equipped destroyers at sea and Patriot missiles on land. Defense officials have said the two Aegis Ashore units could cover Japan entirely from one station at Yamaguchi in the south and another at Akita in the north. The plan to deploy the two systems already had faced a series of setbacks, including questions about the selection of one of the sites, repeated cost estimate hikes that climbed to 450 billion yen (U.S. $4.1 billion) for their 30-year operation and maintenance, and safety concerns that led to local opposition. Kono said Japan has signed contract worth nearly half the total cost and paid part of it to the U.S. He said Japan is trying to get the most out of what it has already paid, though he did not elaborate. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has steadily pushed to step up Japan's defense capability, said last week that in light of the scrapping the government would need to reconsider Japan's missile defense program and do more under the country's security alliance with the U.S. Abe said the government would consider the possibility of acquiring preemptive strike capability, a controversial plan that critics say would violate Japan's war-renouncing Constitution. Kono on Thursday also raised concern about China's increasingly assertive activity in regional seas and skies. He said Chinese coast guard vessels are repeatedly in and out of Japanese waters around disputed East China Sea islands, and a Chinese submarine recently passed just off Japan's southern coast. “China is trying to change the status quo unilaterally in East China Sea, South China Sea and with Indian border and Hong Kong as well,” Kono said. “It is easy to make connections about those issues.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/06/25/japan-confirms-its-scrapping-us-missile-defense-system/
9 octobre 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

Space Development Agency wants someone to launch its first 28 satellites
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — Now that the Space Development Agency has selected four contractors to build its first 28 satellites, the organization is looking for a launch provider to ferry them into orbit. According to a solicitation posted Oct. 6, the agency plans to select one company to provide launch services for all 28 satellites, with the first launch taking place in September 2022. Those 28 satellites will comprise tranche 0 of SDA's National Defense Space Architecture, a new proliferated constellation providing a whole host of services primarily from low Earth orbit. Among other things, the NDSA is anticipated to provide beyond-line-of-site targeting, hypersonic missile warning and tracking, and a space-based mesh network that will connect all of the services as part of the Pentagon's new Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) approach. The constellation will ultimately include hundreds of satellites, but SDA isn't putting them all up at once. Rather, the agency has adopted a spiral development approach, where the most mature and ready technology is added to the constellation in two year tranches. This launch solicitation covers the first tranche, otherwise known as tranche 0. Slated to go into orbit in fall 2022, tranche 0 is what SDA calls its “war fighter immersion tranche.” “Its goal is to provide the data in a format that the war fighters are used to seeing on tactical timelines that they can be expected to see once we actually become operational,” SDA Director Derek Tournear told C4ISRNET. “The whole purpose of tranche 0 is to allow the war fighters to start to train and develop tactics, techniques and procedures so that they can create operational plans for a battle where they would actually incorporate these data.” With just 28 satellites, tranche 0 will not provide global, persistent coverage. Instead, it will provide periodic, regional capabilities. Tranche 0 will feature the inaugural satellites in the transport and tracking layers. The 20 transport layer satellites will form the base of a space-based mesh network, passing data from satellites to weapon systems along a high-speed, on-orbit corridor. Tournear has previously stated that the transport layer will serve as the space component of CJADC2, the Pentagon's effort to connect sensors to shooters across domains and services. The inaugural tracking layer will be made up of eight satellites. The tracking layer will be used to detect and track hypersonic threats, working with the transport layer to pass tracking data and custody from satellite to satellite—collaborating to keep an eye on globe-traversing missiles that can evade current missile warning capabilities. SDA has selected Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems to each build 10 of the transport layer satellites, while SpaceX and L3 Harris will split the eight tracking layer satellites. Because the SDA has given vendors flexibility in the designs of their satellites, there is some variety to the weight of the space vehicles being launched into orbit. While all 20 transport layer satellites will weigh approximately 200 kilograms, give or take 20 kilograms, there is a significant difference in the size of the eight tracking layer satellites. One vendor—either SpaceX or L3 Harris—will be contributing four tracking layer space vehicles weighing approximately 1,068 kg each. The other vendor's space vehicles will be significantly lighter at just 249 kg. In total, SDA is looking to put as much as 10,164 kg of hardware into orbit. The agency wants all 28 satellites delivered to two circular, 950 km near-polar orbits, with the tranche divided evenly into two planes of 14 satellites. The launch provider has until March 31, 2023, to put all payloads on orbit and has discretion as to how many launches it will use to do that. The goal is to have as many satellites up as close to September 2022 as possible. Proposals are due by Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. EST. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/10/08/space-development-agency-wants-someone-to-launch-their-first-28-satellites/
11 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - May 08, 2020
AIR FORCE Cardinal Contracting Inc., Freehold, New Jersey (FA4484-20-D-0007); Ranco Construction Inc., Southampton, New Jersey (FA4484-20-D-0008); Rome Management Associates LLC, Trenton, New Jersey (FA4484-20-D-0009); The Oak Group Inc., Camden, New Jersey (FA4484-20-D-0010); and GWP Enterprises Inc., Franklinville, New Jersey (FA4484-20-D-0022), are each being awarded a ceiling $66,000,000, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for asphalt paving and concrete of one base-year, plus up to four one-year options. The contractors will provide all plant, labor, materials, equipment, transportation, fuel, supervision and permits required. All work will be performed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed by May 10, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with seven offers received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds will be used, with no funds being obligated at the time of award. Funding will be provided on individual task orders. The 87th Contracting Squadron, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity. Moog Inc., Elma, New York, was awarded a $9,508,592, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity requirements modification (P00013) to FA8118-15-D-0001 for the overhaul of the B-2 Hydraulic Servocylinder contract line item numbers during a six-month extension of services from May 8, 2020, through Nov. 8, 2020. Work will be performed in Elma, New York. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition and one offer was received. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity. Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia, has been awarded a $9,443,405 task order (FA8523-20-F-0027) on basic contract FA8523-19-D-0006 for engineering sustainment in support of the AAR-44, AAR-47 and Georgia Tech Synthetic Imaging Missile Simulation systems. This order provides support to the analysis and evaluation of various electronic optical/infrared and radio frequency threats and responses which will improve the survivability, reliability and mission success for U.S. warfighting airborne elements. Work will be performed in Atlanta, Georgia, and is expected to the completed by May 21, 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,697,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity. ARMY Kord Technologies LLC, Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded a $50,965,000 modification (P00004) to contract W31P4Q-17-D-0044 for target system hardware support. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 13, 2022. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity. AAI Corp., doing business as Textron Systems, Hunt Valley, Maryland, was awarded a $25,610,000 firm-fixed-price contract for three Aerosonde Mk4.7 systems, initial spare parts, logistics support, new equipment training and two field service representatives. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Nigeria, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2019 overseas contingency operations, defense funds in the amount of $25,610,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-20-C-0025). AAI Corp., doing business as Textron Systems, Hunt Valley, Maryland, was awarded a $20,780,000 firm-fixed-price contract for two Aerosonde Mk4.7 systems, initial spare parts, new equipment training, logistics support and a field representative. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Uganda, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2020 peacekeeping operations and overseas contingency operation funds in the amount of $20,780,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-20-C-0014). Manson Construction Co., Seattle, Washington, was awarded a $20,300,000 firm-fixed-price contract for fully crewed and equipped self-propelled trailing suction type hopper dredge on a rental basis. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Plaquemines, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 13, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $20,300,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the contracting activity (W912P8-20-C-0024). Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc., Aiea, Hawaii, was awarded a $9,745,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Honolulu Harbor maintenance dredging. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Honolulu, Hawaii, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 20, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $9,745,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (W9128A-20-C-0003). Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was awarded a $7,561,560 firm-fixed-price contract for small mission computer hardware and executable software for the RQ-7B Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 15, 2022. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Army) funds in the amount of $7,561,560 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-20-C-0060). NAVY Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Syracuse, New York, is awarded a $47,654,068 cost-plus-incentive-fee delivery order to previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00024-19-D-6200) for the procurement of submarine modernization kits, equipment and installation. Work will be performed in Syracuse, New York, and is expected to be complete by February 2023. Fiscal 2020 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $39,580,396 and 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,073,672 will be obligated at time of award and not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. AAI Corp., doing business as Textron Systems, Hunt Valley, Maryland, is awarded a $20,720,170 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-14-C-6322 for engineering and technical services for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) and Unmanned Surface Vehicle program. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Maryland (70%) and Slidell, Louisiana (30%). The UISS will allow the Littoral combat ship to perform its mine countermeasure sweep mission and targets acoustic, magnetic and magnetic/acoustic combination mine types. The UISS program will satisfy the Navy's need for a rapid, wide-area coverage mine clearance capability which are required to neutralize magnetic/acoustic influence mines. The UISS also seeks to provide a high-area coverage rate in a small, lightweight package with minimal impact on the host platform. Work is expected to be complete by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,193,864 will be obligated at time of award and not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY S&L Aerospace Metals LLC,* Flushing, New York, has been awarded a $24,386,400 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for cylinders and pistons. This was a limited competitive acquisition set-aside to small business sources only, as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 19.502-2. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is New York, with a May 7, 2025 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. The type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-20-D-0043). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2181939/source/GovDelivery/

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