V&V, innovation adoption, and workforce development
Applied’s recently-released V&V handbook, participation in a new Atlantic Council commission, recent speaking engagements, recent news, and a list of upcoming conferences and events.
The Nexus Newsletter
Welcome to the fourth edition of The Nexus Newsletter - a bi-weekly email newsletter covering recent announcements from Applied Intuition and important news bridging national security and autonomy.
This edition of the newsletter includes Applied’s recently-released V&V handbook, participation in a new Atlantic Council commission, recent speaking engagements, recent news, and a list of upcoming conferences and events.
Applied releases V&V handbook
Safely developing and deploying autonomous systems is tough; there is a reason only a handful of companies have fielded truly self-driving vehicles. Because autonomous vehicles, and the environments they operate in, have infinite possible outcomes, autonomy programs need to define and follow a rigorous verification & validation (V&V) process to ensure they are developed and deployed safely. Compounding the inherent complexity of deployment, there is limited federal regulatory guidance surrounding autonomous system safety and how programs can work towards safe commercial deployment.
As a result of these challenges, some autonomy programs are hesitant to invest in V&V early on in their development, hoping that federal guidance will make it easier to establish V&V processes in the future. However, those programs might overlook the fact that foundational development and testing practices are best established together–and early on. By building the right foundations early and incrementally maturing V&V processes over time, teams can develop autonomous systems more efficiently against clearly defined goals, avoid delays, scale more quickly, and achieve a safer, more successful end product.
Applied’s V&V handbook provides commercial and defense autonomy programs with principles to consider for their safety framework (“I. Safety Framework Best Practices”) and best practices for setting up their V&V processes (“II. V&V Best Practices”). The Applied team has leveraged its unique position in the autonomous vehicle industry to create this first edition, and we look forward to engaging in conversations and hearing feedback from you.
In September, Applied will host a V&V briefing on Capitol Hill that lays out the insights in the handbook and provides recommendations for policymakers in Congress. More details to follow.
Applied joins, sponsors Atlantic Council commission
Applied Intuition is proud to join and sponsor the Atlantic Council Scowcroft Center for Strategy & Security’s Commission on Improving DOD Engagement with New Companies & Innovators! Co-chaired by 27th Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and 23rd Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, the Commission will develop and publish recommendations to better enable the DOD to rapidly absorb commercial tech.
“Modernizing the Defense Department’s acquisition system and culture to better engage America’s innovators and field their cutting-edge technologies far more quickly will be absolutely critical to winning the future,” said Esper.
“We established this Commission to address the urgent need for DOD to absorb commercial innovation and speed up the delivery of critical capabilities to the field, or else lose its decisive military advantage on a battlefield increasingly defined by emerging and advanced technologies,” said James.
Harnessing emerging technologies such as autonomy, AI, and robotics will be imperative to deterring and prevailing in future wars against near-peer adversaries, but existing acquisition and budgetary processes impede DOD’s ability to embrace commercial innovations. Outdated processes and rigid bureaucratic barriers stand in the way of DOD’s ability to rapidly embrace technological innovations.
The Commission will consider how to recalibrate the DOD’s risk tolerance, realign acquisition and budgetary processes, and make big bets on dual-use tech critical for the future of U.S. security.
Applied spoke at U.S. Chamber of Commerce hearing
Last week, Applied’s Director of Government Colin Carroll participated in a field hearing hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce AI Commission on Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation. During the field hearing, the Commission reviewed testimonies on the topics of national security, intellectual property, and other important AI issues.
As part of the national security panel, Colin argued that government, academia, and industry must do more to attract and retain the world’s best technologists to solve our most important national security problems. Additionally, he outlined best practices in the commercial autonomy industry, and how DOD should apply those best practices to successfully develop, test, and deploy autonomous systems safely, efficiently, effectively, and at scale.
News we’re reading
Support for autonomous systems is gaining momentum in the national security space. Here are excerpts from a few of the articles that Applied Intuition’s government team is tracking:
Congressional Research Service | Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Roles, Missions, and Future Concepts
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have gained increased prominence in U.S. military operations. The Department of Defense (DOD) is currently developing advanced UAS, along with optionally crewed aircraft, as part of its modernization strategy. The roles and missions of UAS are relevant to Congress in authorizing, appropriating, and providing oversight to DOD and the military services for these systems.
Over the past decades, military forces have used UAS to perform various tasks, including
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance;
Close air support;
Cargo and resupply; and
Communications relay.
Analysts and DOD argue that UAS could replace crewed aircraft for a number of missions, including
Aerial refueling;
Air-to-air combat;
Strategic bombing;
Battle management and command and control (BMC2);
Suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses; and
Electronic warfare (EW).
In addition, DOD is developing several experimental concepts—such as aircraft system-of-systems, swarming, and lethal autonomous weapons—that explore new ways of employing future generations of UAS.
In evaluating appropriations and authorizations for potentially new and future UAS programs, missions, and concepts, Congress may consider the following issues:
The proliferation of UAS able to function as lethal autonomous weapons and its implications for global arms control;
Costs of future UAS compared with crewed aircraft;
Personnel and skills implications of UAS;
Concepts of operation and employment; and
The proliferation of uncrewed aircraft technologies.
The Drive | Iran Unveils Ominous New Naval ‘Drone-Carrier Division’
The Iranian Navy has announced the introduction of what it's calling its inaugural “drone-carrier” division. A corresponding unveiling ceremony aired on Iranian state TV showing the navy launching drones from various ships and even a submarine. The display points to Iran's ongoing push to not only acquire more weaponized drone capabilities and capacity, but to deploy those systems via a diversified set of vectors — including from the sea.
Iranian state media claims that the division’s primary operations will consist of transporting and operating these various unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are said to be made up of combat, surveillance, and kamikaze types, although the Iranian state TV broadcast was seemingly focused on highlighting how a lot of these UAVs are kamikaze drones designed for carrying out strikes. As to the actual type of drones to be employed by the division, reports indicate that UAVs such as Pelican, Homa, Arash, Chamroosh, Jubin, Ababil-4, and Bavar-5 were all utilized during the unveiling ceremony.
Breaking Defense | Resilient space systems require autonomy, cultural shift: Space Force chief scientist
Space Force science and technology efforts are concentrating on autonomous systems to help the service in its effort to overhaul military space systems to better withstand adversary attack, according to the service’s top scientist.
“We have to build resilience in our systems. Had we thought about this 15 years ago, it would be simple — we would have that resilience built in. But now we’re having to redesign our architectures to figure out how to do it. And so that’s where the rub lies and where the challenges are,” Joel Mozer, Space Force director of science, technology and research told the America’s Future Space Innovation Summit on July 12.
“Autonomy and automation, human-machine interfaces, trust in our autonomy. All of these are areas that we’re really concentrating on today to really shore up and be able to do the operations,” he said.
FedScoop | Navy tests manned-unmanned teaming technology with Super Hornets, drones
The Navy and its industry partners recently conducted several flight tests that demonstrated the ability of manned F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets to team with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs), the service announced on July 15.
The Pentagon views manned-unmanned teaming between piloted planes and autonomous drones — also known as robotic wingmen — as a key component of future warfare, and the Navy is trying to put the technology through its paces.
A series of four flight tests recently conducted by the F/A-18 and EA-18G Program Office (PMA-265) at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Pt. Mugu, California, successfully demonstrated the ability of a Block III Super Hornet to command and control three drones, according to a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) press release.
“During the flight tests, F/A-18 pilots entered commands into a third-party tablet instructing the UAVs to perform various maneuvers used in combat missions. The tablet was connected to the Block III’s adjunct processor, known as the Distributed Targeting Processor – Networked (DTP-N), which transmitted these commands to the UAVs. The UAVs successfully carried out all commands given by the pilots,” according to the release.
Breaking Defense | For emerging tech, DoD funds $100M in new projects to help bridge ‘valley of death’
The Pentagon is giving $100 million total to various program offices under a new pilot program aimed at bridging the dreaded “valley of death” where promising technologies fail to shift from the lab into actual operations, the Defense Department announced on July 20.
The funding is a part of Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, or APFIT, a pilot program established in fiscal 2022 to “expeditiously transition technologies” from small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors — those that have received less than $500 million from DoD — in an effort to get capabilities into service members’ hands quicker.
“APFIT holds great promise to transform the way the Department procures next generations solutions,” Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said in a statement. “This pilot program is well positioned to be a key asset as we continue to work to bridge the valley of death. The ten companies being funded will fill critical capability gaps. Without APFIT, their innovative technologies could take much longer to reach the hands of our warfighters.”
Pushing technologies across the valley of death and getting innovative technologies to soldiers, sailors, Marines, guardians and airmen quicker have been top priorities for Shyu. In fiscal 2022, Congress funded $100 million for APFIT. In FY23, DoD is requesting $109.2 million for the rapid prototyping program.
Upcoming conferences & events
Tracking new events in the autonomy and national security space can be difficult. Here are a few of the upcoming conferences and events that Applied’s government team is tracking:
July 27-28, 2022 | AUSA Warfighter Summit & Exposition
August 16-18, 2022 | Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering & Technology Symposium
September 18-22, 2022 | ITS World Congress
September 19-21, 2022 | AFA 2022 Air, Space & Cyber Conference
September 21, 2022 | Defense Applications Expo (DAX)
September 22, 2022 | AUVSI Defense
September 27-30, 2022 | 39th International T&E Symposium
September 28-29, 2022 | Unmanned Maritime Systems Technology USA 2022
September 28-29, 2022 | Fed Supernova 2022
October 10-12, 2022 | AUSA 2022 Annual Meeting & Exposition
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