Australia and the US team up on AI

The Australian Army and US Marine Corps have conducted a joint trial of Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled autonomous uncrewed systems at Marine Corps base Quantico in the USA. fly over Northern Virginia.

The trial saw an Uncrewed Air System (UAS) searching for ground targets; when one was detected the target information was passed to a human operator who then issued the command to destroy it.

Australian Army’s AI technical director Lieutenant Colonel Adam Hepworth said activities like this demonstrated ways autonomous systems and AI can be used in modern battles.

“This type of operationally relevant experimentation is essential to understand how we employ AI in a responsible, safe and legal way into the future,” Lieutenant Colonel Hepworth said.

The activity employed a variety of Australian and US emerging technologies including autonomous UAS, loitering munitions and low-earth orbit satellites facilitating real-time communication and information sharing.

The Australian Army, in partnership with Boeing companies Phantom Works Global and Insitu Pacific, deployed an Australian-developed uncrewed aerial surveillance and reconnaissance system. During the activity, this system successfully located and classified all threats. The Australian commander received real-time information about the classified threats, prompting the USMC commander to launch a strike on the targets.

“Today is important from a science perspective because it enabled the demonstration of advanced AI capabilities in an operational realistic environment, being used by warfighters, to explore the operational utility of those capabilities and provide refinement for advanced technologies going forward,” said Minister Counsellor Defence Science and Technology at the Australian Embassy in Washington, Darren Sutton.

“AI is going to be incredibly important in the future because it will enable us to move the warfighter further away from the interface between themselves and the opposition,” he added. “It also enables us to counter the mass that potential large adversaries would have, relative to a smaller force like the ADF.”

The USMC will travel to Australia in late 2024 to conduct further experimentation.