Navy Officials Say Digital Infrastructure Key to Advancing AI, ML for Military Applications

The U.S. Navy has started laying down the foundations for digital infrastructure that will allow for the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in contested environments.

According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, AI will play a crucial role in the service’s unmanned surface vehicles. AI and ML would also be critical for Condition-Based Maintenance Plus, an initiative that seeks to automate aspects of surface ship functionality.

Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander of the Naval Surface Force, said the surface Navy will need an updated digital infrastructure as warfare and information become more interconnected. According to Kitchener, the digital infrastructure will allow the service to remain competitive in a battlefield where algorithms, network-centric operations and complex computing determine the winners, National Defense Magazine reported.

Capt. Peter Kim, director of the Surface Analytics Group and the lead official of Task Force Hopper, shared that his organization is working on the infrastructure with a goal to scale AI quickly. He added that the infrastructure must include personnel, platforms and processes.

One of the main challenges for the large-scale adoption of AI and ML is the Navy’s lack of enterprise service architecture for every kind of project that it wants to pursue. Lt. Artem Sherbinin, a navigation officer and a member of Task Force Hopper, said during a panel discussion that the service needs to have foundational infrastructure to train AI models, and it must be provided at an enterprise scale.

Sherbinin added that securing funding for AI projects is not simple. The Navy must explain to appropriators what it will do with the money, what it hopes to achieve and what it would give the investors in return. He noted that the military branch does not yet have the correct answers for the aforementioned questions.