WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG. So far, we have studied how the U.S. Army (IBCS) and Navy (CEC) programs have been conducting experiments, to integrate their weapons and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems into the Kill Web mesh network. Now, let’s take a look at what the Space Force is doing. The Space Force was formed as the fourth armed service in 2019 and operates under the Air Force.

For most of the last decade, both the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Congress have bemoaned the slow pace of weapons-systems acquisition for equipping the country’s warfighters. A 2020 study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found the average cycle time for a major defense acquisition program (MDAP) – defined as the time it takes from Milestone B (the official start of a program) to the declaration of Initial Operational Capability (IOC) – to be nearly seven years.

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG. Last time, we looked at the Army’s IBCS (Integrated Battle Command System) program and Project Convergence exercises, through the eyes of their advanced AI (artificial intelligence) Kill Web algorithms (Rainmaker, Prometheus, FIRESTORM, and SHOT). Unfortunately, the Navy doesn’t talk much about AI algorithms, so that forces us to reluctantly abandon the trusted engineering principle of consistent analytical continuity and view their progress through what they do talk about: their platforms.

In today’s unusually challenging environment, companies may need to look for workarounds to stay on track regarding supply chain and delivery. Some electronics companies are learning the hard way that supply-chain resilience is a critical qualification for doing business, whether in their own or in their business partners' and suppliers' operations. These lessons will change the way organizations consider procurement and production decisions for the future.

During the summer of 2021, U.S. Army leaders articulated the vision of Capability Set (CS) 25, which is the third in the Army’s iterative series of integrated tactical communications packages for delivery to soldiers. While each CS has had a different capability focus, the overarching objective is to realize “...the multidomain capable network of 2028, which seeks to enable information dominance against a peer or near-peer adversary.”

Today’s global semiconductor shortage has stretched procurement lead times to unforeseen lengths.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the world was captivated by one common goal: winning the space race to dominate a new uncharted domain. Since then, the U.S. defense and aerospace industries have taken great strides to innovate and to create next-generation systems that help the U.S. maintain a competitive advantage in global defense from space.

The ongoing effects of COVID-19 have had a dampening effect on military R&D programs, indicating that 2022 will see more military and aerospace electronics spending earmarked for legacy defense programs and block upgrades rather than for new platform development.

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

The aerospace and defense sector has placed the greatest urgency on building the most complete intelligent systems now. CB Insights states, “In the aerospace and defense industry, supporting software has to make quick decisions in high-risk scenarios. Artificial intelligence [AI] is becoming integral to the $8.7 trillion space as companies and government agencies explore using technologies from robotics and autonomous systems to cybersecurity and telecommunication for national security.”

Draganfly, a drone solutions and systems developer, has created drone solutions, software, and artificial intelligence (AI) systems to transform how various industries can save time, money, and lives. The company’s commercial plug-and-play AI machine-vision system enables the delivery of goods and data and provides biometric information through its Vital Intelligence (VI) software platform. This tech has proven its mettle across a wide spectrum of use cases ranging from retail operations and drone racing to disaster management. It could also revolutionize the battlefield.

WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG. In our previous adventure, I introduced the pyramid model to identify each service’s Kill Web program and their experimental activities. Sitting at the peak is the Pentagon’s JADC2 program (Joint All Domain Command and Control) and the GIDE-XX exercises. On one side is the Army's IBCS program (Integrated Battle Management System) and Project Convergence exercises. On the next side is the Navy’s CEC program (Cooperative Engagement Capability) and their highly classified Project Overmatch exercises. On the next side is the Air Force's ABMS program (Advanced Battle Management System) and Onramp exercises. Since the Space Force stills falls under the Air Force, we’ll call their program SF-ABMS. They  make up the final side of the pyramid. Space Force has been conducting a number of experiments under different names so we’ll decode those in the future.

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

WARFARE EVOLUTTION BLOG. There’s been a lot of activity going on in the past few months, testing different technologies and operational concepts. We need a model to organize those events to avoid confusion and reduce complexity. So, we’ll use the basic structure of the Kill Web to make sense of it all. The JADC2 (Joint All-Domain Command and Control) program sits at the top. That’s the Pentagon’s vision of how all ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems, weapons systems, satellites, logistics, and operations from all the different services are connected together and share data in realtime. Off to the side is the JAIC (Joint Artificial Intelligence Center), that develops and feeds different artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms into JADC2 and the different services’ activities.