Air Force Wraps Up Architecture Demonstration and Evaluation Exercise

The Department of the Air Force’s Chief Architect Office concluded its fifth Architecture Demonstration and Evaluation exercise, which facilitated the integration of commercial technologies into a common decision superiority mission architecture.

According to Preston Dunlap, chief architect of the Air Force and Space Force, the goal of ADE 5 was to enable decision advantage across combatant commands and in the tactical edge through artificial intelligence, AF .mil reported Wednesday.

“Operating without decision superiority is like a tourist driving in New York City without GPS; you may ultimately get where you need to go, but it won’t be efficient and may not be effective,” Dunlap said in a statement.

AI has long been touted by defense officials for its ability to revolutionize military decision making.

Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, previously told Nextgov that the analytical capabilities provided by AI are the answer to the overwhelming amount of battlefield information that combatant commanders have to deal with.

ADE 5 featured experiments with commercial-off-the-shelf technology to boost the bandwidth, stabilize the connectivity and increase the network resiliency of communications equipment operated by the Pacific Air Forces.

Tests with edge computing and store capabilities were also carried out to give warfighters access to mission applications during distributed operations, as well as experiments using mobile devices to run classified applications over commercial satellite and terrestrial cellular networks.

Results from ADE 5 are being coordinated across various initiatives and programs, including the Advanced Battle Management System and Rocket Cargo Vanguard.