Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy

Autonomy describes the capability to accomplish a pre-defined mission without further human interaction and / or super­vision. The degree of autonomy depends on a system’s abilities of sensing, analyzing, communicating, planning, decision-making, and acting (altogether forming the artificial intelligence of the system), ranging from semi-autonomy to full-auton­omy.

Featured Publications

How Large Language Models are Transforming Modern Warfare

Is ChatGPT Applicable in the Military Domain?
By Col 
Antonios 
Chochtoulas 
In October 2022, OpenAI released its novel Artificial Intelligence (AI)–driven chatbot, the famous ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer). Although AI and Machine Learning (ML) are already successfully used for pattern recognition, filtering, and other purposes, [...]

The Heart of Decision Superiority

Evolve or Lose – Why Your Next War May Be Won or Lost in Seconds
By Col (ret.) 
Anthony 
Bellione 
‘The question is not whether NATO will need to evolve and develop its C4ISR capabilities but whether it can do so in time to meet the gathering threats to the Alliance.’ General James Cartwright, Former [...]

Freedom of Manoeuvre in Cyberspace

By Lt Col 
Eric 
Jodoin 
By Maj 
Fotios 
Kanellos 
NATO defines manoeuvre as ‘Employment of forces on the battlefield through movement in combination with fire, or fire potential, to achieve a position of advantage in respect to the enemy to accomplish the mission’. But [...]

Artificial Intelligence – Human Symbiosis in Fighter Aircraft

End of the Fighter Jet Era or a New Evolution?
By Lt Col 
Rafael 
Ichaso 
‘The fighter jet era has passed.’ These words were famously spoken by Elon Musk at the 2020 Air Warfare Symposium when prompted to describe the future Air Domain. Musk’s position appears to be supported by [...]

Adversarial Machine Learning

A Threat to NATO Missions
By Dr 
Elie 
Alhajjar 
The rapid progress in computer vision made possible by deep learning techniques has favoured the large diffusion of appli­cations based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The ability to analyse different kinds of images and data from [...]

Bots Taking Over

The New-Breed Decision Makers
By Maj 
Mehmet 
Bayram, PhD 
Decision-making problems, one of the main research areas of management science, have been studied in a highly-interdisciplinary manner by the contributions of the scientists and engineers from various research fields. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) [...]

Speeding Up the OODA Loop with AI

A Helpful or Limiting Framework?
By Mr 
Owen 
Daniels 
Strategists, warfighters, and technologists have heralded Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a potential tactical and strategic tool for outpacing adversary decision-making processes, commonly seen through the frame of the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act) loop. [...]

Human-On-the-Loop

By Mr 
Laurent 
le Quement 
By Brig Gen 
Jean-Michel 
Verney 
By Col 
Thomas 
Vinçotte 
In light of today’s uncertainties, there is a shared realization that NATO’s Air supremacy which has underpinned military operations since the 1980s is no longer a given. The playing field is being levelled due to [...]

Is Human-On-the-Loop the Best Answer for Rapid Relevant Responses?

By Brig Gen 
Doug 
Cherry 
By Dr 
Michael B. 
Cowen 
By Capt. 
Rick 
Williams 
In this paper, we address three high-level questions that we recognize do not have clear answers as yet. Is a Human-On-the-Loop (HOTL) capability, giving user control only over autonomy planning, better at delivering Rapid Relevant [...]

Big Data Management in ISR and New Technology Trends

By Maj 
Giuseppe 
Valentino 
The digital revolution and the endless use of data are transforming the way we live and work. Simultaneously, new technologies through data are providing great opportunities to make military operations different from the past. Command [...]

Potential Impact of Artificial Intelligence to C2 Systems

By Mr 
Daniele 
Frisoni 
This paper is derived from the presentation ‘Potenziali impatti dell’applicazione dell’Intelligenza Artificiale nel Combat Management System’ held at Tiberio workshop, organized by Italian MoD, June 2019, Rome. In the frame of combat systems, the Command [...]

Exploiting AI in Command and Control of the Air Battlespace

By Lt Col 
Asger Skov 
Pilgaard 
Leveraging existing and emerging technologies is one of the Allied Command Transformation challenges, along the Innovation and Technology path of Warfare Development in NATO. ‘Experimentation and Demonstration’ is one of the work strands that accentuates [...]

Harnessing AI and Deep Learning

Real-Time Automated Advance Persistent Threat Detection and Multi-Domain Situational Awareness
By Ms 
Gentry 
Lane 
Cyberattacks (with the objective of disrupt and degrade critical communications) on military and intelligence targets are long, incremental operations that precede kinetic military strikes by months or years. Detecting and defending this ‘cyber strike before [...]

Command and Control in Digital Transformation

The Future of the Command Post
By Mr 
Harold H.M. 
Vermanen 
The Crimean crisis showed Russia’s ‘new generation warfare’ capability or, as NATO described it, ‘hybrid warfare’ including propaganda, deception, sabotage and other non-military tactics. These tactics were used before. The difference was in their level [...]

Autonomous Weapon Systems in International Humanitarian Law

Errare Robotum Est
By Lt Col 
Andre 
Haider 
The number of unmanned systems in military inventories has grown rapidly and is still increasing throughout all domains. At the same time, the level of automation built into these unmanned systems has not only increased [...]

The Future Role of Artificial Intelligence

Military Opportunities and Challenges
By Mr 
Andy J. 
Fawkes MSc MBA 
By Lt Col 
Martin 
Menzel 
Artificial Intelligence (AI) today is one of the hottest buzzwords in business and industry, and it has military applications, too. In fact, industry has developed AI as a technology over the last 60 years, and [...]

Future Unmanned System Technologies

Legal and Ethical Implications of Increasing Automation
By Ms 
Maria Beatrice 
Catarrasi 
By Lt Col 
Andre 
Haider 
The number of unmanned systems in NATO nations’ military inventories has grown rapidly and is still increasing throughout all domains. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) currently represent the largest share of those systems. At the same [...]

Platform Autonomy

State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives from an S&T Point of View
By Mr 
Hans-Ludwig 
Besser 
By Dr.-Ing. 
Dennis 
Göge 
By Mr 
Michael 
Huggins 
By Dr.-Ing. 
Dirk 
Zimper 
The Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT) is an ­international network of defence scientists and engin­eers dedicated to increasing the performance of new and ageing vehicles in the air, sea, land, and space ­domains. This network [...]

Machines Do Not Think!

The Contradiction with Autonomous Systems
By Lt Col 
Andre 
Haider 
“In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are ­upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational ­record. The Skynet Funding [...]

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