Page 16 - ADT JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 Online Magazine

VISTA and its simulation system allow digital
aircraft designs to be ‘flight tested’ before the
aircraft is ever built.’’

Niemiec said AFRL is working with multiple
industry partners to integrate advanced, tac-
tical performance vehicle designs along with
cutting edge autonomy capabilities onto the
X-62. “VISTA will allow us to parallelize the
development and test of cutting edge artificial
intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehi-
cle designs,” he said. “This approach, combined
with focused testing on new vehicle systems as
they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy
for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver
tactically relevant capability to our warfighter.”
who spent most of his 23-year Air Force career focused on countering
MANNED-UNMANNED COMBO human, technical, and cyber-based threats, observed: “Based on
Argus’ blazing speed and scale, in seconds, analysts will be able
Artificial intelligence is steadily becoming to research and visualise complex relationships that would have
pervasive in defence forces, and there’s con- taken at least a month of steady research and annotation. Within
siderable experimentation underway in defence the framework of the DoD’s acquisition risk review process, Argus will
AI worldwide. Future conflicts will require criti- enable supply chain risk analysis to be more efficient and effective
cal decisions made within seconds, analysing while delivering enhanced value at a lower cost per insight.”
an operating environment. One way the U.S.
Department of Defence (DoD) aims to speed For the Air Force, IoT is an essential component of its evolving
up and automate decision-making is through Advanced Battlefield Management System (ABMS). Integrating AI
a massive military Internet of Things (IoT) and into development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) will be a
artificial intelligence. pivotal strategy for modernising aircraft weapons systems in line
with the Defence Department’s software modernisation strategy.
“We are at the dawn of an entirely new type
of conflict, driven by rapid advances in artifi- The U.S. Air Force’s 309th Software Engineering Group (SWEG),
cial intelligence. Whereas nuclear proliferation which strives to keep aircraft weapons systems relevant, works
threatened entire populations, AI proliferation across a variety of systems and platforms, including the F-35,
individualises warfare by manipulating targeted F-16, F-22, A-10, KC-135 and C-17 aircraft, as well as the Milstar
groups through digital means. Using AI, bad Satellite Communications System and the Minuteman and Sentinel
actors can propagate disinformation to exploit intercontinental ballistic missile systems. One of 309th SWEG’s top
ignorance and weaken civil society causing bil- priorities is improving its DevSecOps and multi-systems engineer-
lions of dollars of damage to the U.S. economy,” ing to accommodate more emerging technologies, such as AI and
commented Prashant Bhuyan, Founder, CEO, machine learning. AIOps is poised to be the “future of DevSecOps,”
and Chairman of Accrete, Inc. Robert Devincent, 309th SWEG’s chief software officer, was quoted
by GovCIO Media & Research.
Last November, Accrete had secured a five-
year multi-million dollar production Operational The DOD’s new software modernisation strategy, released last
Technology (OT) software licensing contract February, launched software factories like 309th SWEG into lead-
from the U.S. DoD for Argus, the company’s ership roles as the harbingers of DOD IT transformation. “It is
highly configurable, dual-use open-source challenging when you’ve got 100 some odd projects and weapon
threat detection AI software solution, worth systems that have a variety of mission needs,” Devincent said.
tens of millions of dollars. Accrete is the prime “We’ve adopted things like Agile framework, Scrum, Kanban and
defence contractor licensing configurable dual- XP. We’re looking at things like lean software development, SAFe and
use AI software directly to the DoD. In addition different ways that we can enable the teams to be more resilient,
to helping the DoD predict bad actors that may but also not be so rigid in the way that we’re doing things.”
be intentionally obscuring identities to influence
the supply chain, Argus has also been enabling There are thousands of systems and sensors in today’s battlespace.
the U.S. Air Force to reverse engineer binaries Automation will also help deliver the right data at the right time
from microprocessor manuals to detect vulner- to make decisions faster through another transformative solution
abilities in firmware. – Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2). JADC2 is a
future command and control network that will link capabilities and
Zachary Smith, Accrete AI Government’s military platforms across the globe in all domains – air, land, sea,
Programme Manager and retired special agent cyber and space.
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