REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS - CounterStrikeMedia

WHAT THE BATTLESHIP TEACHES NAVY ABOUT AI, AUTONOMY & CHINESE CONTAINMENT

1/24/2019

Navy Considering More Advanced Arleigh-Burke Destroyers
By Megan Eckstein, USNI News: “The Navy is looking at “something beyond even a Flight III” combat capability for its new-build destroyers, as its plans for transitioning from building the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to the future Large Surface Combatant continue to evolve and the LSC procurement date continues to slide."

Technological Identity and Autonomous Systems: Lessons from the Battleship by Steven Hallgren

Without a clearer ethics policy, the US could lose the military tech battle with China
(C4ISRNET) Nearly three decades after the Cold War ended, a new strategy of containment is underway at the Pentagon.

Maxar’s Exit From DARPA Satellite Servicing Program a Cautionary Tale
By Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews: " Former RSGS program manager Gordon Roesler: ”The RSGS capability is so revolutionary, the nation really needs to find a way to get it on orbit.""

WHY SOLDIERS CARRY SO MUCH: A ROBOTIC LOAD CALLED INFANTRY & C4ISRNET MOST READ ARTICLES IN 2018

12/30/2018

DARPA Program Blending Robots Into Infantry Squads
By Todd South, Marine Corps Times: “Here’s a worrying bit of news: America’s best ally in the war against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is nearly broke.”

The Overloaded Soldier: Why Troops Carry So Much Weight
By David Hambling, Popular Mechanics: “Over the last decade, hyped technologies such as robotic mules and wearable exoskeletons promised to free up soldiers from hauling so much gear. Instead, the demands of the modern battlefield only increased the load. This is one problem which technology alone may not be able to solve.”

C4ISRNET’s 5 most-read stories of the year
(C4ISRNET) With a new national defense strategy that focuses a move away from counterterrorism and an emphasis on China and Russia, it’s not surprising that Russia was the subject of two of our most-read stories this year. After all, a different type of conflict requires a rethinking of the technology necessary to win those battles.

The Army is looking for a few good robots. Not to fight — not yet, at least — but to help the men and women who do. These robots aren’t taking up arms, but the companies making them have waged a different kind of battle. At stake is a contract worth almost half a billion dollars for 3,000 backpack-sized robots that can defuse bombs and scout enemy positions. – Associated Press

The agency that invented stealth technology, the internet, and the M16 has its sights focused on enhancing how the infantry squad works on the battlefield with robots, and advanced targeting and sensing gear. – Military Times

EMITTER SYSTEMS TO DEFEAT AREA DENIAL SYSTEMS

12/23/2018

Air Force Buying More Joint Threat Emitters to Counter Air Defenses
By Joseph Trevithick & Tyler Rogoway, The WarZone: "“Our Joint Threat Emitter systems enable aircrews to train in environments that match actual combat situations.”

Is the AI Bubble about to Burst?
Richard Walker, CapX

A GRIM FUTURE CALLED URBAN WAR

12/12/2018

Why a One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Urban Ops Won't Work
By John Spencer, Modern War Institute: "If we are entering an era where military forces will increasingly be called upon to operate in cities (and we are), it follows logically that the Army should begin preparing for urban terrain."

The Grim Future of Urban Warfare
By Darron Anderson, The Atlantic: “War is always bad, but it’s going to become much worse.”

Technology Is Making Warfare in Cities Even Deadlier
// Darran Anderson
From airports to undergrounds, new weapons and brutal tactics will make things worse for urban dwellers.

The destructive age of urban warfare; or, how to kill a city and how to protect it
(Modern War Institute) Combat in urban areas is the most destructive type of warfare imaginable.

Urban Legend: Is Combat in Cities Really Inevitable?
By David Johnson, War on the Rocks: "Future combat will take place in dense urban areas and likely in megacities, or so we are told. These are the new “truths” that are taking hold in the U.S. military."

SWARMS & ELECTRONIC WAR

12/9/2018

4. Watch a swarm of 300 robots reorganize autonomously
(C4ISRNET) Against the white void, the assembled robots look like nothing so much as ball bearings with Christmas lights on.

Are robot swarms the future of destroying sea mines?
(C4ISRNET) A sea mine is a promise of tragedy in the future. Built for the immediate demands of a naval conflict, deployed for some once-pressing strategic end, and now left in place for decades, sea mines are an enduring risk. Clearing the sea from the dangerous refuse of the past can be a high-stakes proposition. Why not, then, let robots do it?

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED LIFE FORMS DETECTING ENEMY SUBS & DARPA TRIES BIOTECH FOR WAR WOUNDS

12/7/2018

The US Military Is Genetically Engineering New Life Forms To Detect Enemy Subs
The Pentagon is also looking at living camouflage, self-healing paint, and a variety of other applications of engineered organisms, but the basic science remains a challenge.
PATRICK TUCKER

Neurons Make the Robot, NRL Says
By Kimberly Underwood, Signal Magazine: “Autonomous capabilities have advanced, especially in the last 10 years, but robots still have a hard time performing ad hoc motions, particularly manipulative movements using a robotic arm or hand, says Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) roboticist Glen Henshaw."

DARPA Is Trying Bioelectric Implants to Help Heal Wounds
// Frank Konkel
One of the Pentagon's new research programs could see biosensors, actuators and even artificial intelligence implanted in soldiers to speed up the body's healing processes.

DEATH OF PRECISION WARFARE, BIOTECH/ROBOTICS ON THE BATTLEFIELD & A RECORD OF STRATEGIC THOUGHT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

11/27/2018

The Death of Precision in Warfare? by Paul Barnes and Alexandra Stickings

Biotechnology for the Battlefield: In Need of a Strategy by Diane DiEuliis

‘A Record of Exploded Ideas’: History and Strategic Commentary in the 21st Century by David Morgan-Owen

Artificial Intelligence: Forget The Terminator For Future Army: LTG Wesley

High-Energy Laser Systems and the Future of Warfare
By Jason Sattler, Strategy Bridge: “ The first exploration into the different possibilities for weaponized lasers began in the 1990s, which culminated in a major study published by the Defense Science Board Task Force in 2001."

Forget The Terminator: Robotics For Logistics 1st, Combat 2nd
(Breaking Defense) Don’t think about the Terminator or Iron Man: Think about Sigourney Weaver’s power loader lifting crates in Aliens.

SWARMS VS. GPS

11/23/2018

DARPA tests autonomous drone swarms against communications and GPS jamming
(UPI) DARPA has conducted a demonstration test series at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., showcasing its Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment program for autonomous drone operations in the face of enemy jamming and area-denial efforts.

Project Maven Overseer Will Lead Pentagon's New AI Center
// Patrick Tucker
DOD rewards three-star with the lead on its new AI-development center.

THE FUTURE OF WAR: URBAN & CHINA USES AFRICA AND WEST ASIA FOR ITS OWN PROJECT MAVEN

10/31/2018

Cities pose huge challenges to military forces. The biggest might be just crossing the street.
(Modern War Institute at West Point) Many of the challenges of urban warfare are not new; nor, unfortunately, are the options soldiers have to confront these challenges. The U.S. Army has a long history of fighting in cities and its tactics, techniques, and procedures have been refined mostly from the hard lessons of World War II and the evolution of close-quarters combat that occurred following the failed 1972 rescue attempt during the Munich Olympics.

China is Exporting its Cyber Surveillance to African Countries
// Abdi Latif Dahir
Beijing has trained African officials on its sprawling system of censorship and surveillance.

Amy K. Lehr writes: The surveillance state in Xinjiang demonstrates the dark side of surveillance equipment, big data, and AI. It also indicates the speed at which China is developing and commercializing AI. China has a competitive advantage in this space because Chinese companies have access to a massive pool of data on which to train AI and fewer privacy laws to obey. – Center for Strategic and International Studies

DARPA, AI: THE PENTAGONS WISH TO TRAIN A SOLDIERS BRAIN & THE 3 C'S OF CYBER

10/15/2018

DARPA Wants Soldiers to Control Machines With Their Minds
By Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics: "DARPA is working on technology to read and write to the human brain. The focus isn't on mind control but rather machine control, allowing the human brain to directly send instructions to machines."

The Pentagon's Push to Program Soldiers' Brains
// Michael Joseph Gross
DARPA's developing capabilities still hover at or near a proof-of-concept stage. But that's close enough to have drawn investment from some of the world's richest corporations.

(Commentary) Quantum computing must be a national security priority
(Scientific American) For much of the last 70 years, the national security of the United States and its allies was in large part due to the technological superiority of their public and private sectors. Today, however, the future of that technological leadership is in doubt as nation-state rivals such as China are pursuing leadership positions in a next generation of technologies likely to redefine the geopolitical power structure.

The three C’s of cyber
(Fifth Domain) The U.S. elections systems are not the only form of critical infrastructure at risk from cyberattack. From the national power grid to our transportation and agricultural systems, a host of systems and networks must be secured and protected.

DARPA, Army Test Optionally Manned Helicopter (It’s Not A.I.)

DARPA’s Experimental Constellation
By Caleb Henry, SpaceNews: “The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded satellite operator Telesat a contract to study the use of commercial buses in the agency’s experimental low-Earth-orbit constellation program known as Blackjack.”

THE ISRAELI'S & NANO SATELLITES

10/4/2018

Israel Plans Anti-Missile Nano Satellite Constellation

SMALL NUCLEAR REACTORS FOR THE BATTLEFIELD

9/23/2018

Build Small Nuclear Reactors for Battlefield Power
// Andy Erickson
Los Alamos engineers are working on a tiny, steel-encased core regulated by physics, not pumps.

‘A Perfect Harmony Of Intense Violence’: Army Chief Milley On Future War

Pentagon Wants a Nuclear Reactor That Fits in a C-17
By Kyle Mizokami, Foxtrot Alpha: “The Department of Defense wants a portable nuclear reactor the size of a main battle tank that's capable of being lifted to overseas hot spots. The reactor would provide megawatts of power for U.S. forces, providing juice for everything from Xboxes to directed energy weapons."

Critics Roast the Army’s Battlefield Nuclear Reactor
By Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics: “You can see the logic behind the idea. The U.S. army envisions a kind of portable nuclear reactor that could move with units and provide all the power needs for a remote military bases, eliminating the need to transport lots of fuel and maintain long supply lines to keep a base fueled up."

DARPA & AI MOVING FORWARD: THE RUNNING ROBOT

9/10/2018

Watch Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot run and jump over obstacles
(C4ISRNET) The best way to appreciate the latest video of Boston Dynamics’ “Atlas” robot is with Survivor’s 1982 hit “Eye of the Tiger” blasting at the same time.

Artificial intelligence: a revolution in strategic affairs?

DARPA, Army & Team Platypus: Big Boosts For Artificial Intelligence
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Friday, September 7, 2018 4:39 PM

AI-Next: The 3rd WAVE
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven: “In short, the AI-Next initiative, intended to evolve into a 3rd Wave, can explain the reason “why” it reached the conclusion it reached, something which offers a breakthrough level of computer-human interface, he added.”

East vs West in a race for AI supremacy
BY ALAN BOYD
China has invested heavily but still lags the US in key AI areas, a gap that could widen if its start-ups fail to embrace emerging industry standards

FULLY AUTONOMOUS IS NOW

9/7/2018

It's Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm
// Patrick Tucker
DARPA's new research in brain-computer interfaces is allowing a pilot to control multiple simulated aircraft at once.

Inside the Pentagon's Plan to Make Computers 'Collaborative Partners'
// Jack Corrigan
DARPA's latest artificial intelligence project aims to bridge the gap between a machine that learns from data and one that adds new insights.

Fully autonomous ‘mobile intelligent entities’ coming to the battlefields of the future
(Defense News) A killer robot by any other name is far more palatable to the general public.

Can the US military still innovate quickly?
(Defense News) In the era of great power competition, the speed at which competing militaries are capable to innovate and evolve could determine who would win in a war. In light of the need for speed, military innovation experts at the Defense News Conference tackled the question of whether the Department of Defense can still move quickly to develop new technologies and capabilities.

Pentagon’s A&S reorganization should be completed a year ahead of time
(Defense News) Last December, Ellen Lord sat down with reporters and told them that the reorganization of the Pentagon’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics office would be a two-year process.

Options for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Five Eyes Alliance
By Dan Lee, Divergent Options: "Autonomous systems may provide the Five Eyes alliance an asymmetric advantage, or ‘offset’, to counter its strategic competitors that are on track to field larger and more technologically advanced military forces. "

THE EXOSKELETON RACE BETWEEN MOTHER RUSSIA & USA; NAVY RETROFITS THE F22 RAPTOR FOR F35

8/31/2018

SOCOM Tests Sarcos Exoskeleton (No, It Isn’t ‘Iron Man’) By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Monday, March 18, 2019 1:05 PM
Sorry, you won’t be punching aliens in the face. But loading 200-pound missiles onto a helicopter by yourself? That’s plenty useful.

Lockheed Pitching F-22/F-35 Hybrid to U.S. Air Force
// Marcus Weisgerber
With a Raptor's body and the JSF's brain, the new jet would aim to answer the next decade's Russian and Chinese threats.

Russia, US Are In a Military Exoskeleton Race
// Patrick Tucker
A look at the Iron Man-like dreams and power-starved realities of dueling technology programs.

ARMY MOVES TOWARD JOINT HYPERSONICS & MULTI-DOMAIN

8/28/2018

Army Warhead Is Key To Joint Hypersonics

Army to Unveil New 'Multi-Domain Operations' Strategy
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven: “Senior Army strategists tell Warrior Maven this emerging strategic shift, which is expected to fully roll out at the upcoming annual Association of the U.S. Army Symposium, represents a key next step in the strategic evolution beyond the often discussed “Multi-Domain Battle” initiative.”

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: APPLICATIONS FOR WAR

8/10/2018

Synthetic Biology: The Premise and Peril of a New Dual-Use Technology by Al Mauroni

Synthetic Biology: An Emerging National Security Threat
By Joseph Zeman, RealClearDefense: "Synthetic biology is a widely misunderstood domain where its national security implications are severely underestimated."

US DELIVERS A NEW FORCE FIELD FOR ARMY VEHICLES & C.H.A.S.E. FOR CYBER HUNTING

8/6/2018

The 'Force Field' Technology Behind the Army's New Armor
By Allison Barrie, FOX News: “Astonishingly futuristic new tech creates a seemingly invisible, impenetrable, protective bubble around military armored vehicles making enemy attempts to fire at U.S. tanks pretty pointless – those rounds won’t hit the tank, they’ll explode mid-air.”

DARPA's New AI-Enabled 'Breakthrough' Cyberattack 'Hunting' Technology
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven: “The program, called Cyber Hunting at Scale (CHASE), uses computer automation, advanced algorithms and a new caliber of processing speed to track large volumes of data in real-time, enabling human cyber hunters to find advanced attacks otherwise hidden or buried within massive amounts of incoming data.”

Our New Model Robot Armies
By Peter Layton, Small Wars Journal: “Robotic technologies seem set to disrupt warfare in at least two big ways: firstly, in improving productivity making armies equipment-centric; and secondly, in making defence dominant on the battlefield. In this revolution, the character of war will change and somewhat unexpectedly, possibly its nature.”

Why you should follow the 1-10-60 rule of cybersecurity
(Fifth Domain) One of the most common misconceptions of a data breach is that it takes the heaviest toll on the reputations of federal IT leaders, as they are responsible for protecting their agency against a breach.

DOLPHINS HUNT FOR MINES, GET FISH

8/1/2018

U.S. Navy Dolphins Hunt Mines During RIMPAC Exercise
(Popular Mechanics) The Dolphins locate deadly sea mines in return for a delicious fish treat.

RUSSIANS MOVE TOWARD 6TH GENERATION FIGHTER & EXAMINING AMERICA'S 4 RMA REVOLUTION

7/25/2018

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/07/stealthy-drone-may-be-future-russian-fighter-jets/149976/?oref=d-river

Readying the Naval Services for What’s Over the Horizon
By Robert P. Kozloski, CHIPS: “Experts claim that society is at the verge of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. This change presents both challenges and opportunities for the Department of the Navy, where warfighting considerations are rightfully privileged. The management aspects of technology are only a secondary consideration, but may have enormous consequences if they are not addressed.”

WAR IN MEGACITIES, HOW TO FIX THE ARMY & THE FUTURE OF WAR IN THE PACIFIC

7/23/2018

The missing link to preparing for military operations in megacities and dense urban areas
(Army Times) With the global trends of rapidly rising populations, urbanization, urban crime and political violence, military personnel will find themselves deploying into dense urban areas.

How to reshape the US military in 5 steps
(Defense News) The U.S. National Defense Strategy calls for increased investments to “restore warfighting readiness and field a more lethal force” capable of defeating aggression by the nation’s most capable adversary states. This is warranted: War gaming and analysis done at the think tank Rand point to troubling trends in the capabilities of U.S. and allied forces relative to those of key adversaries.

Fueling a future war in the Pacific
(War On The Rocks) It is striking how little U.S. logistics vulnerabilities have improved since WWII. Energy for military operations in the geographically vast Pacific region still primarily takes the form of military-grade fuels used by ships and aircraft. That fuel is still mostly stored in fuel terminals in known locations, many of which are in range of potential adversaries’ aircraft, submarines, and surface-to-surface missiles.

Accelerating multi-domain operations: evolution of an idea
(United States Military Academy) For ideas to have a lasting impact they must evolve.

PROJECT MAVEN & JEDI UP AND RUNNING: A.I. IN AFRICA

7/2/2018

Pentagon Hopes JEDI Contract Good for the Force
By Colin Clark, Breaking Defense: “Worth up to $10 billion over a decade, the Pentagon’s attempt to build its first true enterprise-wide cloud has sparked charges that the deal is designed to go straight to Amazon, who already supplies the CIA with its cloud services.

The Pentagon Wants to Bring Mind-Controlled Tech To Troops
// Jack Corrigan
The Defense Department's research arm is working on a project that connects human operators' brains to the systems they're controlling—and vice versa.

China, Russia, and the US Are All Building Centers for Military AI
// Patrick Tucker
But their burgeoning approaches to state-sponsored research are divergent as the countries themselves.

General: Project Maven is just the beginning of the military’s use of AI
(DefenseOne) Air Combat Command chief invites tech firms to help build next-gen tools for the Pentagon. Also says dissent "is part of being an American."

Joint Artificial Intelligence Center Created Under DoD CIO

An Assessment of the Likely Roles of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Systems
By Ali Crawford, Divergent Options: “Though a battlefield in the future will likely see autonomous decision-making technology as a norm, the transition between modern applications of artificial intelligence and potential applications will focus on incorporating human-machine teaming into existing frameworks.

Pentagon's Massive Multi-Domain AI Initiative
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven: “The Pentagon is making a massive push to accelerate the application of AI to ships, tanks, aircraft, weapons.”

Creating the Conditions for Artificial Intelligence to Thrive in the Pentagon
By Richard Kuzma, War on the Rocks: “Data is the lifeblood of AI, and a crucial part of the infrastructure that will need to undergird these new technologies as the U.S. military adopts them.

ARMY FIELDS NANO DRONES

6/13/2018

Army to Acquire New Nano Drones
By Sonja Jordan, National Defense Magazine: “Soldiers are “looking for a covert, safe and immediately available situational awareness tool” that they can carry easily and use at the squad level, Aguirre said.

General: Project Maven Is Just the Beginning of the Military's Use of AI
// Marcus Weisgerber
Air Combat Command chief invites tech firms to help build next-gen tools for the Pentagon. Also says dissent "is part of being an American."

Special Ops Command To Hold Flyoff Of Tiny Drones

MALD-X Tested for Swarm EW
By Colin Clark, Breaking Defense: "More than three-and-half-years ago we ran an intriguing piece by Robert Haddick, a respected strategist and sometime consultant to Special Operations Command. Haddick proposed modifying a small drone called the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) so it could take on mobile missiles and perhaps search huge swaths of Chinese territory after being launched from B-52s.

Army to Control Future Battle Drones from U.S. Bases
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven: “Thinking conceptually requires an openness of thought which historically might have been considered anathema to military hierarchy and good discipline."

THE F35 HITS THE ISRAELI SKY

5/26/2018

IRON MAN SUIT FOR SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND

5/24/2018

SOCOM 'Iron Man Suit' Prototype by 2019
By Vivienne Machi, National Defense Magazine: ““We think the risk is worth the reward in terms of what we can do to improve the survivability of the individual operator.”

Lockheed, Army To Test Exoskeleton In December

WHAT REPLACES THE 3RD OFFSET

NEW MILITARY TECHNOLOGIES 2017

HOW ENGLAND REVERSED DECLINE

LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGY FOR WAR

OPTIMAL FRAMEWORK FOR SPECIAL OPERATORS & BETWEEN WAR-PEACE, THE GRAY ZONE

DEFENSE & SECURITY

HOW MULTI-DOMAIN BATTLE FIXES R.M.A.

BUDGET & FORCE STRUCTURE FOR THE LONG WAR

FOREIGN POLICY

Archives

October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
August 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
November 2016
April 2016
February 2016
November 2015

Categories

Tweets by WilliamHolland