The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has successfully completed its largest artificial intelligence (AI) experiment to date, trialing AI across operations on land, at sea and in the air. Cycle 3 of “WINTERMUTE” was a five-day event which saw around 200 scientists from Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), military personnel from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) and industry as well as international partners – including Australia and the US – come together to tackle the threat.
The event, based in Portland Harbour, sought to gather critical information to help design and test AI algorithms which aim to improve military effectiveness in the air, maritime and land environments. Other Royal Navy ships, vehicles, aircraft, manned and unmanned, carried out mission based scenarios to pro-vide visual, infrared and band radar data.
These missions were intended to mimic actual battle conditions, with “red teams” of adversaries assuming the role of enemy forces in order to provide AI systems with an authentic testing ground.
The AI systems, being developed for the Royal Navy, are set to massively improve maritime surveillance and the ability to detect threats in a complex maritime environment. The ambition is to facilitate timelier and more effective decision-making in naval operations in order to enhance the UK’s maritime security.
The RAF will be well pleased too, as it will also be able to exploit cutting-edge target acquisition systems able to process data originating from several airborne sensors at once. This feature is anticipated to help decrease the pilot workload, and improve the efficiency of air operations, especially in the increasingly contested and difficult airspaces.
Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, the Rt Hon Maria Eagle MP, highlighted the game-changing nature of AI for UK defence. “We see the potential for AI to change the way we work and the start of we are hoping will lead to a step-change in how we support our forces on operations.
“Trials like these keep us, and the Army, at the cutting edge, as we work to adapt to our future threats, while forming kind of partnerships with both our allies and industry,” Mr Williamson said in the statement.
Dstl’s Chief Executive, Dr Paul Hollinshead, said: This trial is important for the delivery of defence technology. “This cutting-edge experiment is the result of groundbreaking design, development and integration of technologies,” he said. “By integrating across multiple domains and by engaging the combined force of multiple partners, we are not only attracting data – rather, we are laying the foundation for mission success, for operational advantage, and for a competitive edge that will keep our forces safe for generations,” he said.
The MoD underlined that the use of AI in defense operations is a means of assisting in the decision-making process, rather than supplanting it. Exosensors are designed to remove some of the decision making the battlefield from deployed military personnel by sorting through and presenting actionable battlefield intelligence in a straightforward, targeted manner based on large reams of data.
This trial along with the success over the last year represents the UK Government’s commitment to be at the cutting edge of defence and harness technology to allow the UK to flourish in a time of increasing uncertainty on the global stage. The intelligence collected will be vital in informing the next generation of AI-enabled defence systems, giving UK forces a strategic advantage on operations over the coming years.
