Armed forces are attempting to use artificial intelligence more and more as a means of enhancing their performance. The US and allied nations are using AI to assist with some of the most intricate naval operations in their playbook, as seen by recent declarations and exercises.
In order to film their actions and collect information for artificial intelligence products, the British military and its industrial partners carried out amphibious invasions over five days in October, utilizing some 130 people, 13 ships, crewed and uncrewed planes, and 50 cameras and sensors.
The British Ministry of Defense released a statement describing the difficult circumstances of the drills, which included wind gusts of up to 40 knots. The drill participants were required to board and exit vehicles in various ways in order to collect data indicative of various behavioral tendencies.
According to the statement, visible, infrared, sonar, and radar data were all collected during the exercise, along with supporting “metadata” such as platform and sensor locations, weather, sea conditions, and other contextual data. In order to train AI algorithms to identify and analyze the behavior of objects, such as boats and the people who are on them, more datasets will be constructed using the data.
Large-scale troop and vehicle landings are difficult, even under perfect circumstances, and become even more difficult while facing enemy fire. British officials are trying to come up with more effective strategies to protect against amphibious landings and other maritime activity, and to execute such operations while collecting data about human behavior and the natural environment.
The minister for defence procurement, James Cartlidge, stated following the exercise that “creative, data-driven exercises like this show how AI can enhance our military capabilities, enabling us to respond more efficiently to the threats of today and tomorrow.”
Most applications of AI raise ethical questions, particularly when military personnel are engaged. A commitment to developing new AI technologies and utilizing them in a responsible, safe, and ethical manner was highlighted by British government, as well as that of its industry partners.
Offshore, the US, Australian, and British navies are relying on AI to assist them in one of their trickiest and most time-consuming tasks: locating enemy submarines.
Gaining even a tiny advantage is essential to preventing and, if necessary, fighting a conflict in the face of fierce rivalry from formidable foes like the Chinese military and its expanding underwater force.
In November, a helicopter and a frigate of the Royal Navy collaborated “to trial cutting-edge sonar networking while collecting a significant amount of underwater data,” according to an announcement from the Royal Navy. Once analyzed, this data will aid improve networking and submarine detection capabilities as well as advance artificial intelligence (AI) for data gathering and decision-making.
Anti-submarine warfare is a very challenging and time-consuming operation. At hundreds of feet below the surface, an enemy submarine can conceal its presence with currents, water temperature, and the seafloor, thus being alert is essential to capturing it.
To locate and track an enemy sub, navigators employ a variety of tools such as sonobuoys, helicopters, submarines, and surface ships. However, locating an enemy sub requires a great deal of expertise and good fortune. AI’s ability to quickly sort through mountains of data could significantly enhance this procedure.
Following a meeting this month, the defense ministers of the US, Australia, and the UK stated that their militaries are hoping to leverage the advantages of their AUKUS partnership by implementing “common advanced artificial intelligence algorithms on multiple systems,” such as their P-8A maritime patrol planes, “to process data from each nation’s sonobuoys.”
The ministries said in a statement that their combined efforts will enable prompt high-volume data analysis, enhancing the ability to combat submarines.
As the conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated, the timely identification of targets through information, surveillance, and reconnaissance, or ISR, is essential to modern warfare. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help by expediting the information-gathering process and boosting productivity during the critical targeting stage.
The defense ministers of the AUKUS states that their nations are concentrated on providing AI algorithms and machine-learning capabilities to improve force protection, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, as well as precision targeting.
The ministers said that their nations wanted to seek “rapid adoption” of “resilient and autonomous artificial intelligence technologies” in land and maritime operations, as well as incorporate them into national programs by 2024.
AI is the way of the future in many ways. The US military and its allies believe that in order to stay ahead of enemies, they must integrate it into their operations, intelligence-gathering, and procurement procedures.
