Artificial Intelligence, which enables machines to perform tasks with human-like judgement, is now being utilised by the Australian Defence Force to support soldiers in combat situations.
On Thursday, September 26, the Australian Army conducted the Land Autonomous Systems & Teaming Demonstration or LAST-D at the Puckapunyal Military Area.
Brigadier James Davis hosted the exhibition of the experiment, showcasing how the Australian Army will utilise AI in the battlefield.
“Today is the endpoint of a couple of weeks of experimentation where we're working out how the Australian Army can best use artificial intelligence and autonomy to increase its effectiveness,” he said.
“Artificial intelligence is a new technology to the world ... it’s been here the last 10 years or so, and we've been experimenting with it over that time.
“We're now at the stage where we can start applying it in more realistic scenarios to control airborne and ground systems, but also to make best use of the data.”
The demonstration showed new drones called OWL-B, a loitering munition designed to support operations in highly contested, complex, regional, and littoral environments like those found in the Indo-Pacific region, completing an aerial surveillance, locating targets, feeding information to soldiers from afar, and striking or aborting according to the operator’s commands.
“It's really a big value proposition of the Artificial Intelligence is that the soldiers can be removed to an extent from the danger,” Brig Davis said.
“They can then find out what enemy is out there, and then they can use other systems to engage them.”
“The data is passed between the un-crewed systems, but the decision to conduct a strike activity remains with the commander.
“That's something else that we're testing here is do we have all the computers radio's and information displays enabling the Commander to make the decision they need to make”
Brig Davis said that while some of Australia's coalition partners have already begun using artificial intelligence, the demonstration showcased the majority of the Australian Army's current AI capabilities.
“The Australian Army is in an experimental phase at the moment working out what others are positive and negatives of these types of systems,” he said.
“They inform decisions taken by the government about which systems to acquire in greater numbers, and that will occur over the next couple of years.”
“What really makes me happy is when I see how well the soldiers adapt to this.
“How they use their creativity, and how they work with industry to find the solutions to the problems.”