Technology

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm of the U.S. Defense Department, will invest $2 billion in a multiyear campaign called “AI Next” to accelerate the next wave of artificial intelligence technologies. The agency, known as DARPA, plans to explore new theories and applications that could allow machines to adapt to changing situations.

As edge technologies continue to get smarter, faster, and more connected, incredible opportunities have emerged for the public sector to accelerate time to value and reduce costs. These mission-specific solutions are also simpler and faster to deploy!

As they field the remainder of their new and improved target handoff systems, the U.S. Marines are planning further enhancements and applications, including possibly using the technology to control an unmanned aircraft or its sensor payload.

The military’s miniature air-launched decoy technology, known as MALD, equipped with decoy, jamming and now electronic warfare capabilities, advanced this week after a successful free flight run through. The decoys are used by the military to confuse adversarial air defenses.

The Air Force’s MALD Program Office and the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, along with the Naval Air Warfare Center at Point Mugu, California, successfully completed a series of MALD-X demonstrations on August 20 and 22, the DOD noted in a statement.

The U.S. Army already is delivering several components of an integrated tactical network (ITN), a concept designed to allow the service to keep pace with technological advances, insert new capabilities as they become available and address emerging threats.

The ITN focuses on a simplified, independent, mobile network solution that does not rely on a single component to provide enhanced network availability down to the small unit dismounted leader. It takes advantage of both commercial and military network transport to enable communications in disrupted, disconnected, intermittent and limited bandwidth environments, according to an Army article.

To ensure greater supply availability of certain technologies, the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command is pursuing a concept not widely used in the military, reports Maj. Gen. Randy Taylor, USA, commander of the organization and senior commander of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The command has started a pilot program that will allow the service to option intellectual property rights in specific hardware and software contracts, Gen. Taylor says.

As electronic warfare is re-emerging as a key battlefield function, the commercial sector is striving to offer advanced technologies. Land-based systems are needed to combat both ground and airborne adversarial threats, while airborne electronic warfare tools provide maneuverable tactics to marque aircraft.

The focus of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC’s) dismounted electronic countermeasure system, known as Modi, has evolved from defeating radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (RCIEDs) to being a multi-function electronic warfare (EW) tool, explained Jerry Coburn, director, business development, SNC, during a recent interview with SIGNAL Magazine.

A small business with a prestigious board of directors is the second firm selected in an AFCEA Small Business Innovation Shark Tank competition June 7 to uncover innovative emerging technologies. The company, ClearForce of Vienna, Virginia, won against three other firms with its proprietary technology for seeking out employees who might be motivated to commit insider crimes deliberately as well as accidentally.

Never before has there been such an intense focus on data security and privacy. With data breaches increasing exponentially and the European Union’s recent implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data security has been at the forefront of news stories over the past several months, with both businesses and consumers suddenly paying very close attention. With this increased attention has come an understanding that data continues to exist even when it is no longer needed or used. Due to this newfound understanding and GDPR’s “Right to be Forgotten,” the eradication of data has new urgency and has become critical to a successful data security program.