As part of the 5G plan, the US Department of Defense awarded a three-year, $10 million contract in March 2022 to Cubic Nuvotronics, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Cubic Corporation. Under the contract, Cubic Nuvotronics will develop a dual-band, high-performance Wireless Network Communications Transceiver (WNCT) that is compact, lightweight, and low-power for military applications. The simultaneous dual-band operation of WNCT provides increased operational flexibility and also ensures low latency for high-speed data without any interference with the existing US Department of Defense operational spectrum. The department awarded Viasat – a California-based telecommunications company – two contracts in September 2021 to study the use and deployment of 5G networks on the battlefield, with the goal of exploring how 5G technology can improve operational capabilities. Viasat will leverage its expertise in cybersecurity, networking, and 5G wireless expertise to help the Department of Defense understand how to best use 5G technology to enable multi-domain operations in future Joint Operational Plans, including All-Domain Joint Command and Control (JADC2).
The contract focuses on two areas: first, improving Command and Control (C2) applications and services, and second, implementing a 5G network optimized for rapid combat deployments (ACE) in frontline environments.
The US Space Force issued a request for information in March 2022 in the field of research into 5G technology for the Space Data Transfer (SDT) program. Technologies of particular interest to the US Space Force include: 5G Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO); mmWave in space and wireless access network slicing (a network configuration that allows you to create multiple networks, both virtual and independent, on a common physical infrastructure; this configuration has become an essential component of the overall 5G architectural landscape); management of network partitions; artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning; reliable independent networks; IT security; 5G Internet of things in space (IoST), multi-tenant computing (MEC), 5G air-ground networks and network topologies in space.
The Department of Defense also awarded Penguin Computing two contracts totaling $68 million in September 2021 to supply two high-performance supercomputers and related capabilities to the Navy and Air Force. Funded by the Department of Defense’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), the system and software will greatly improve the Department of Defense’s ability to solve the most difficult and computationally challenging problems. These advanced processing capabilities are available to all service-dependent agencies and the Department of Defense.
The computers mentioned above will be installed in two of the US Army’s Supercomputing Resource Centers (DSRCs). Among them, the Navy DSRC at the John C. Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi will receive a system capable of delivering 8.5 petaflops (one petaflops per second computer can perform 1 million billion floating-point operations per second). Wright-Patterson of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio at Air Force Base will receive 9 petaflops of computing power.
The National Security Agency (NSA) awarded Hewlett-Packard a $2 billion ten-year contract in September 2021 to meet the high-performance computing power it needs for its AI and analytics requirements. Under the contract, Hewlett-Packard will create a new service that includes a suite of Apollo data storage systems and a ProLiant server. The service obtains and processes large amounts of data and supports deep learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. This contract will provide the NSA with a secure and resilient platform to meet its growing data management needs.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) issued a request for information in September 2021 in search of innovative blockchain and interoperability solutions to protect highly sensitive data. DISA would like to explore the use of blockchain to ensure that critical data remains intact and immutable throughout its lifecycle and to provide a warning mechanism if it has been tampered with in any way. DISA would like to investigate issues related to the sector’s ability to exploit blockchain technology to: 1. develop interoperable blockchain-independent systems between different blockchains; 2. Ensure the stability of important data and issue warnings about tampering with this data. 3. Archiving important data in a decentralized and distributed manner.
Command and Control, Computer, Communications, Internet, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) engineers for the US Army are leveraging blockchain technology to enable new data management capabilities at the tactical level. The development of new data management capabilities is part of the center’s information fund program and is one of several prototyping technologies tested by the Army’s Network Modernization Experiment (NetModX) in May 2021.
The key to the Information Trust program, C5ISR says, is to provide soldiers with a mathematical and verifiable way to review their data from manufacturer to consumer and sensor to shooter. The military’s idea is to eliminate the so-called middleman by manipulating the transmission of data before it reaches end users, allowing leaders to make critical decisions and increasing confidence in their information.
In early 2022, interesting discoveries were made in the search for quantum computing with funding from the United States Army and Air Force, among which the University of Massachusetts Amherst found a new method for automatically correcting errors in quantum computing, in order to protect quantum information from overheating. The effect of errors in the instruction system can be greatly improved, which helps reduce the load on future computers. In addition, Louisiana State University has corrected distorted information in the photonic quantum system through machine learning technology, and the research results can be used in quantum communications, quantum coding and quantum sensing. Finally, the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering has created a new method for quantum communication, sending entangled qubits through a communication cable to link two network nodes, paving the way for the application of large-scale quantum networks.
In addition to all of this, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory announced in January 2021 that the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Korea National Research Foundation, and the Korea Institute for Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) had launched a joint tender to provide three-year grants that jointly promote science and quantitative information technology. The project aims to continue to provide opportunities for scientists and engineers from both countries to mutually enhance emerging technologies. Areas of future collaborative research included in the project include quantum information processing, quantum simulation, the development of new qubits, and more.
To follow up, the Department of Defense announced in July 2021 the cancellation of a $10 billion Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JEDI) contract, in which it plans to use a new, but Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract that best fits the division’s cloud computing needs. The new contract has a much shorter implementation period than the JEDI contract, with a total of five years, including a base term of three years and two optional terms of one year. And in November 2021, the administration announced that it had issued an Appeal for Joint Warfare Cloud (JWCC) capability to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Microsoft, and O0racle.
DoD’s enterprise cloud will have cross-capabilities (unlabeled, classified, and highly-rated), integrated solutions across domains, i.e. global availability at the tactical limit, and improved cybersecurity.
In August 2021, the National Security Agency awarded AWS a secret $10 billion cloud computing contract. The contract, codenamed Wild and Stormy, is the second cloud contract awarded last year by seventeen US intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. The purchase appears to be part of the NSA’s attempt to update its primary classified data repository, the GovCloud Intelligence Community.
With regard to the subject of A entering the scene of the Ukrainian conflict, four important elements of blood appear:
1. The first results show the power of artificial intelligence that allowed for example to intercept communications and reconstruct dialogues, to select and get rid of some Russian leaders (seeing images of gray hair near transmission elements, such as potential leaders).
Secondly. Many of these technologies are in the hands of the private sector as in the case of Primer, hence the dilemma of the relationship between the public and private sectors, especially in such circumstances.
Third. The problem of algorithmic bias caused by poor or unrepresentative training data is fundamental. Machine learning algorithms often work in “opaque” ways. Intelligence agents will have to find ways to build confidence in the conclusions drawn from these programs. Any improperly copied communication can, of course, have deadly consequences on the battlefield, such as sending soldiers into high potential danger or directing a misguided missile attack that could do “friendly” fire damage.
Fourthly. The advantage of speed in planning operations is the real dilemma of all pillars of command: being faster and more accurate than the enemy in laying the plan, the real added value of the purpose of the battle, the cornerstone. Thus, data collection and analysis using AI could eventually become central to battlefield operations. The need for leadership capable of managing “agile” operations and educated in the ethical dimension.
When we talk about artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc., we are dealing with agile methodologies, as opposed to a traditional waterfall: a waterfall involves the linear execution of a precise sequence of stages, each of which generates an output that is used as input from the next stage, hence the origin of the term “cascade” . As part of the management and decision-making process, a real change in the mindset of leaders is assumed. The military is an introduction to this. In the military world we speak of war rooms, for example, when studying agile methodologies.
Software is neither sufficient nor powerful enough if it is not accompanied by a clear leadership structure for the big picture, or strategic goals, and at the same time the ability to move with the same flexibility as software. In addition to the necessity of using algorithms, without losing the “ethical” dimension in the decision-making process.
(Seventh part. End)
“Prone to fits of apathy. Introvert. Award-winning internet evangelist. Extreme beer expert.”
