Officials from the U.S., U.K. and Australia’s military alliance, AUKUS, announced on Friday that the latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology integrated with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has successfully passed testing in “contested environments.”
The three defense agencies involved in the alliance reported that the advanced sensing technology was evaluated to assess whether UAVs could effectively “complete their missions and maintain network connectivity” across diverse battlefields, encompassing land, sea, air and cyberspace.
Under Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement, the three nations are collaborating to “harmonize” AI technologies for defense and security purposes, primarily in response to China’s increasing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
According to a press release issued by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Friday, the AI-UAV integrated technology aims to “reduce the time gap between detecting enemy targets, determining a response strategy and executing that response.”
“Once fully developed and integrated into national platforms, these new sensing systems will provide more reliable data that commanders can use to make optimal decisions and enable service members to respond more swiftly to kinetic threats — all while facilitating seamless joint and combined military operations involving multiple branches of the armed forces and nations,” a DOD statement said.
One example of a system tested in the Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technology (RAAIT) trials involved the use of a map-based application known as a Tactical Assault Kit (TAK).
The software enabled a British UAV to detect the by utilizing “real-time adjustments” based on data collected in coordination with a separate UAV that provided detailed imagery.
The combined information was then transmitted to an “AI officer” in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC), who provided human oversight before an Australian XT-8 UAV could be deployed for a strike mission.
“In the past, each nation relied on its own datasets to develop separate models and deploy those models on their respective platforms. Under RAAIT, we’ve advanced the AI pipeline, prioritizing interchangeability and interoperability, which allows for any combination of datasets, models, algorithms and platforms ,” Kimberly Sablon, principal director of Trusted AI and Autonomy (AIA) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering explained.
The “lessons learned” from these joint trials will be used to establish an “AIA ecosystem” that can be implemented for operational use by all three nations.
“Our goal is to reach a point where we have a pipeline that is interchangeable and interoperable, yet robust,” Sablon stated. “The ability to collect data, train our AI systems, conduct testing and evaluation, and even adapt to unexpected threats within 10 hours at the edge represents a significant milestone for our partnership.”