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.
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.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
"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."
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."
The Chief Digital & AI Office wants to bring in a wide range of software developers to rapidly create new applications for Combatant Commands worldwide, with the new apps plugging into Palantir’s open-architecture Maven Smart System.
Evolved from JAIC’s controversial Project Maven, Palantir’s Maven Smart System pulls together data from satellites, social media and other disparate sources for military commanders and planners.
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
Instead of a single, one-size-fits-all Common Operating Picture, the Pentagon’s emerging battle network needs a foundation of shared data, on which different units can build the software that fits their mission, said Col. Matt Strohmeyer.
“For certain use cases, it’s proving to have a lot of value,” said Col. Matt “Nomad” Strohmeyer. “It’s not this panacea, but it’s also not this Pandora’s box of evil. It’s somewhere in between.”
2023’s Global Information Dominance Experiments were a race to field a “minimum viable” version of CJADC2. The 2024 GIDEs will open up to more input from the services, the Five Eyes allies, and a wide range of contractors.
“The Minimum Viable Capability for CJADC2 [Combined Joint All Domain Command & Control] is real and ready now,” said Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks. “It's low latency and extremely reliable.” But budget gridlock blocks deployment.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
The Pentagon achieved a minimum viable capability for its Joint All Domain Command and Control effort through the recent Global Information Dominance Experiment, Deputy CDAO Margaret Palmieri said.
Through the reinvigorated GIDEs, the Pentagon is “for the first time” taking a “speed and quality approach,” Pentagon Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office chief Greg Little said.
“What we've really been trying to wrestle with inside of CDAO is not to over centralize because the department is so diverse and distributed and so large, that we want innovation to happen at the edge,” said Margaret Palmieri, deputy chief digital and AI officer.
At the moment, "generative" AI systems have "limited utility" for the US military, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, but could help with some tasks if applied "in an ethical way."