This December, after 16 months of studies and experiments, the Department of Defense decided it had figured out enough guardrails for generative AI to start embracing the new technology wholesale.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.While combat has seen a drone revolution, the US has made subtle but real advances in applying AI to military planning, intelligence, and “all domain” command and control.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.DoD’s Chief Digital & AI Office bought Anduril’s Lattice Mesh to let frontline units share data without having to relay it through a central HQ. Now CDAO and Anduril are letting third parties build apps to run on Lattice Mesh, without having to go through Anduril.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Taking over for Task Force Lima, the new AI Rapid Capabilities Cell (AIRCC, or “arc”) will test cutting-edge Large Language Models and other GenAI tools for everything from war planning to cybersecurity.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Responsible Artificial Intelligence Toolkit — essentially an interactive online checklist on how to safely, ethically, and legally develop AI — will also be updated to incorporate last week’s National Security Memorandum from President Biden.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Davenport will serve as the fourth CDAO of the Department of the Air Force.
By Carley WelchAs her signature “Open DAGIR” initiative seeks to bring in smaller, innovative software firms, “we’ve got to be a lot more explicit” in contracting language to protect their intellectual property and data rights, said Chief Digital & AI Officer Radha Plumb.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“You don’t have to do everything,” said Bonnie Evangelista, deputy chief digital & AI officer for acquisition. “If you do a single piece and you do it really well, you can have a contract.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The UK, Australia, and more are working with the Pentagon’s Global Information Dominance Experiments to keep a carrier strike group connected to the allies as it sails through multiple US combatant commands in late 2025.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Cyber National Mission Force’s commander “has that team of expertise as a tool that when she’s got a hard problem, she can use that task force as one of the solutions.”
By Carley WelchThe Joint Fires Network, meant to match weapons to targets across a theater of war, is a crucial pillar of the Pentagon’s nascent global command system, CJADC2.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“We’re trying to be easier to work with,” the Pentagon’s Chief Digital & AI Officer Radha Plumb said as CDAO recruits hundreds of companies to help expand CJADC2 beyond the current “minimum viable capability.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.With Advana, “we’re kind of victims of our own success,” a senior defense official told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview, meaning changes have to be made to “get to sufficient scale.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The recent announcements on Palantir’s Maven Smart System and other strategic tools are just the start, CDAO Radha Plumb told Breaking Defense, with announcements on tactical and business systems coming by fall.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.