Prof. Amit Das,
Head, Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, The ICFAI University, Dehradun
“All warfare is based on deception.
Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must appear inactive;
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
― Sun tzu, The Art of War
According to Cambridge Dictionary Warfare means the activity of fighting a war, often including the weapons and methods that are used. In modern scenario our armed forces are facing the fusion kind of warfare which is blended of conventional, irregular and digital warfare. The Non-Symmetric nature of hybrid warfare is fabricated with various non-military, trans-military and military factors. Due to versatile nature of combat the hybrid warfare is demanding more long-lasting military strategy with intelligent game theory.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the resilient approach to handle the hybrid warfare and it is future for the conduct of complex combat situations. It would be major driving force for the war and level of adaptation of AI-technologies would decide the direction of the war. Major international powers are accepting this truth and recognizing AI as a future weapon for the battle fields. The comprehensive development in the domain of machine-based intelligence motivating the arms industry to produce much stealth, devastating and pinpoint weapons.
The encapsulation of AI-powered war infrastructure could create the support system under the following heads: –
- Intelligent-Integrated-Combat-Operations (IICO)
- Autonomous System
- Integrated Control System
- Sophisticated Military Applications
- Effective Situational Response
- War Games
Intelligent-Integrated-Combat-Operations-System (I2COS)
The hybrid warfare always creates the higher side of losses due to its unpredictive anatomy. The recognition striking opportunities and likelihood high-end risks could be chalk out under the extensive framework of decision making. The integration of AI with the existing system may formulate an intelligent system may be useful to create deep insights from the different discrete decisions or inputs. The intelligent platform may increase the efficiency in routine duty of troops and improve the capabilities during various unpredictive operations. The AI-enabled military infrastructure could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the ground performances. Intelligent-Integrated systems are capable to incorporate required relevant capabilities. According to the need of the modern warfare the human-machine team or man-unmanned collaborations could be equipped for the better control over the war. From the ancient age war one parameter which is important till now is effective decisions. The art of decision making is always a great challenge for the higher formation. Decisions are directly or indirectly influenced by the information inputs received from the scattered nodes. The quality and quantity of the information could not be influenced by the receiver end. The effective deployment of integrated IT-platforms may extract the hidden insights from the collected information and also useful to establish the relationships between different nodes for more informative accuracy.
Autonomous System
April 2016, the US Navy launched the sea hunter, 132-foot sleek of zero-crew size onboard for anti-submarine warfare. This advanced AI based machine was developed and designed by the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) based on ACTUV (Anti-Submarine Warfare Continues Trail Unmanned Vehicle). The Sea-Hunter is responsible for searching the enemy submarine and provide the information about their locations to the naval command center. It also collects the reports about any kind of human activities in the sea. The entire operations of Sea-Hunter have been operated by the machine itself without any human interventions.
US Air Force has capability to successful fly of F-16 fighter plane without on-board pilots. It was pilotless for 55minutes and touched the altitude of 12,200 meters and maintained at supersonic speed Mach 1. The entire test operation had been countertrolled and monitored by two on-ground fighter pilots. The effective completion of this flight has opened a new chapter in drones technology and its uses for active warfare.
Presently most of the countries trying to acquire autonomous weapon capabilities with the indigenous approach. The autonomous weapons are programmed to handle the complex reasoning and critical judgements. The autonomous systems are incorporated the feature about to perceive their external environment with the adaptability quality towards unexpected changes in surrounded environment.
The advancement in sensor technologies and AI is providing a valuable framework for the high-definition engineering of autonomous devices. Cognitive computing, swarm intelligence, ANN (Artificial-Neural-Network), image processing, natural language processing other domain specific technologies are providing ample support to autonomous concept. Sophisticated decision-making qualities of autonomous devices making them more appropriate for the wars.
Integrated Control System
The Integrated Control System could be designed after the tight configuration of advanced hardware, software, databases and complex network. Such systems could synchronize all the running activities on a single platform. The analytical and predictive capabilities of such systems could provide more authenticated instruments to handle the hybrid warfare through a single click or dashboard.
The advantages of integrated control system could be summarize as given below: –
- In-depth Research
- Scenario Planning
- Actionable Intelligence
- Demystify evolving trends in future policy, market & technology
- Strategic Intelligence
- International Economic Decisions
- Effective Engagements with Stake-Holders
- Predictive Models based on current/historical data
- To identify set of best solutions
- Hunting the decision patterns of Global powers
- Searching the Unsurprised relations between decisions
- To identify the hidden clusters in decision nodes
- Link Analysis for uncovering the relations between data.
- Sequence Discovery
- Personalization
- Web Content Mining
- Tracing the frequent episodes
- Model of sequence of temporal events
- Future forecasting
- Trend Analysis
- Future Extraction
- Trend Dependencies
- Calendric Association Rules
The integrated ecosystem is useful to develop single platform for the security agencies to maneuver the national security with the help of other stake holders.
Sophisticated Military Applications
Now a days the entire hybrid warfare is demanding accurate and advanced military applications to reduce the probability of unexpected threats. The military strategists are vigilant to create add-ons of Technology, AI-Methods & Ground Teams for hostile environment. AI-Enabled Military applications are positively accepted by the Military Institutions worldwide to create an effective hindrance for the enemies.
Implementations are as follows: –
- Image Processing and Analysis
- Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
- Battle Management Systems
- Error Analysis System
- Logistics System
- Automated Weapon System
- Improved Target System
Effective Situational Response
In different war theaters the situational behavior of Corps/Division/Brigade is always deciding factor of the war result. For every military the situational awareness is an important ingredient of war control matrix. From sea floor to sky, from Jungle to Himalayas the situational awareness and corrective response is essential element of military activities and strongly affect the local diplomacy of the government.
The 737, E-3 707 & E-767 developed by the Boeing for Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) are deployed for effective surveillance, communication and battle field management. The captured data smartly analyzed with the help of AI and Big Data. Similarly, NETRA is an AEW&CS developed by the DRDO through indigenous technologies for the vigilant surveillance in sea and land. The systems are capable to trace the Ballistic Missile Detection. Various Military satellites are launched to support the situational awareness.
The Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Program is one of the versatile projects executed by the India for the quick situational response. Under this Multi-Layered Balletic Missile Defence System has been developed and strategically deployed.
GSAT-7, GSAT-6, GSAT-7A, EMISAT are the military satellites by DRDO, established in the space for the remote sensing of the locations. Collected observations are useful to extract knowledge for the situational awareness.
War Games
AlphaGo developed by the Google DeepMind, proved its supremacy after defeating the human brain 2017. Go is a traditional Chines Game famous among the intelligent players. The AI based games approach used reinforcement learning to demystify the strategy of the opponent players. Similarly, the War games could be designed by using the reinforcement learning capabilities and “the best war tactics” may be formulated for the win.
- Boeing. (n.d.). 737 AIRBORNE EARLY WARNING AND CONTROL. Retrieved from https://www.boeing.com/defense/airborne-early-warning-and-control
- Centre, G. A. (n.d.). ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN LAND FORCES . BUNDESWEHR-HEER.
- Forrest E Morgan, B. B. (2020). Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence . RAND Corporation
- Harris, J. (2018, November 29). The role of AI in future warfare. Retrieved from BROOKINGS: https://www.brookings.edu/research/ai-and-future-warfare/
- Shimha, R. K. (2020, Oct-Dec). Situational Awareness: God’s Eye View of the Battlefield. IAF’S GROWTH ON INDIGENISATION . Raksha Anirveda.
About the author:
Prof. Amit Das is alumni of BHU with 18 years of teaching experience in higher education and research. Presently heading the Centre for AI & Machine Learning, The ICFAI University Dehradun. His area of research is AI, Cognitive Computing and Nature based Computing. Prof. Das also takes interest to deploy such technologies in the field of Defence, National Security & Digital Diplomacy. He is constant China Watcher for Strategic AI & Technological warfare. ICFAI University is an Academic Partner of SAMDeS.
Very insightful article, true, AI has a significant role the art of fast decision making in combat operations. Great to see you contributing to the defense prepared of our motherland from digital technology usage. Well done and keep going.
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