Britain unveils details on AI defense programs

LONDON — The British Defence Ministry has revealed details about two artificial intelligence developments ahead of a global summit aimed at managing risks posed by the technology.

The two-day summit, which begins Nov. 1 at the World War II code breaking center at Bletchley Park, is expected to host U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as tech industry leaders.

The Defence Ministry said Oct. 31 that a beach-landing exercise was held in the English Channel off the coast of Hampshire. The ministry’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, supported by the Royal Navy and Army, led the five-day exercise in September.

It involved about 130 personnel, 13 vessels, multiple UAVs, a light aircraft, and more than 50 cameras and sensors deployed to gather data that future defense-related AI capabilities could use.

Several U.S. government organizations also participated, including the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Munitions Directorate; the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; and the Opto-Knowledge Systems-supported Armaments Center of the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command.

Industry participants included British firms BAE Systems and Chess Dynamics; Italian company Leonardo; American business Lockheed Martin; and French contractor Thales.

The beach landing saw personnel boarding and leaving vehicles in different ways to generate data representative of varying behavioral traits. In one scenario, synchronized landings saw participants act as a military unit, while another involved participants exiting boats in a deliberately chaotic way to provide a wider data sample of human movement, the MoD said in a statement.

“Innovative, data-driven exercises like this demonstrate how AI can enhance our military capabilities, enabling us to respond more efficiently to the threats of today and tomorrow,” according to Minister for Defence Procurement James Cartlidge.

Data captured during the exercise included visual, infrared, sonar and radar information, as well as metadata such as platform and sensor locations, weather, and sea states. That data will now help train AI algorithms to recognize objects, such as other vessels, the ministry explained.

Helicopter maintenance

The MoD also gave an update on the introduction of a new helicopter support software tool that uses AI to improve maintenance and availability.

The software program, known as Motherlode, is capable of analyzing historical data tailored to environmental and aircraft-specific conditions to more accurately predict equipment failures.

Previously lengthy problem-solving tasks now take just seconds, the MoD said in a statement. The full capability will be rolled out by the end of the year across all Royal Navy helicopters, including the Wildcat and Merlin fleets.

“This is just the beginning of the AI journey for the Fleet Air Arm. There are multiple use cases being explored, leveraging AI to enhance our data exploitation capabilities to maximise aircraft availability for frontline operations,” Cmdr. Nicholas Almond, who leads the 1710 Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, said in the statement.

The MoD said it is now exploring the AI technology’s potential use on other defense equipment, such as the Foxhound armored patrol vehicle.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

伦敦——英国国防部在一次旨在管理人工智能技术带来的风险的全球峰会召开前夕，公布了两项人工智能发展计划的细节。

为期两天的峰会将于 11 月 1 日在二战密码破译中心布莱切利庄园开幕，预计英国首相里希·苏纳克、美国副总统卡马拉·哈里斯、欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩、联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯以及科技行业领袖将出席。

英国国防部10月31日表示，在汉普郡海岸附近的英吉利海峡举行了一次海滩登陆演习。此次为期五天的演习由国防部国防科技实验室牵头，并得到了皇家海军和陆军的支持，于9月份举行。

此次行动动用了约 130 名人员、13 艘舰艇、多架无人机、一架轻型飞机以及 50 多个摄像头和传感器，旨在收集未来国防相关人工智能能力可以使用的数据。

美国政府多个机构也参与其中，包括空军研究实验室的弹药局；能源部的太平洋西北国家实验室；以及由光电知识系统支持的陆军作战能力发展司令部的军备中心。

参与此次活动的行业公司包括英国的 BAE Systems 和 Chess Dynamics；意大利的 Leonardo 公司；美国的 Lockheed Martin 公司；以及法国的 Thales 公司。

英国国防部在一份声明中表示，此次海滩登陆演习中，人员以不同的方式上下车，旨在收集能够代表不同行为特征的数据。其中一种演习方案中，参与者以同步登陆的方式执行军事行动；而另一种方案中，参与者则故意以混乱的方式下船，以提供更广泛的人员移动数据样本。

国防采购部长詹姆斯·卡特里奇表示：“像这样的创新性、数据驱动型演习表明，人工智能可以增强我们的军事能力，使我们能够更有效地应对当今和未来的威胁。”

演习期间采集的数据包括视觉、红外、声呐和雷达信息，以及平台和传感器位置、天气和海况等元数据。该部解释说，这些数据将有助于训练人工智能算法，使其能够识别其他船只等物体。

直升机维护

英国国防部还介绍了新推出的直升机支持软件工具，该工具利用人工智能来提高维护和可用性。

这款名为 Motherlode 的软件程序能够分析针对环境和飞机特定条件定制的历史数据，从而更准确地预测设备故障。

英国国防部在一份声明中表示，以往耗时较长的故障排除任务现在只需几秒钟即可完成。这项全面功能将于今年年底前推广至皇家海军所有直升机，包括“野猫”和“梅林”直升机。

“这仅仅是海军航空兵人工智能之旅的开始。我们正在探索多种应用场景，利用人工智能来增强我们的数据利用能力，从而最大限度地提高前线作战的飞机可用性，”英国皇家海军海军航空兵第1710海军航空中队指挥官尼古拉斯·阿尔蒙德中校在声明中表示。

英国国防部表示，目前正在探索将人工智能技术应用于其他国防装备（例如“猎狐犬”装甲巡逻车）的潜在用途。

Andrew Chuter 是《防务新闻》的英国记者。