This proposal is one of several recommendations laid out by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) in their “Memo to the President and Congress on the Adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Military Purposes,” released on Friday.

Launched in 2021, SCSP is chaired (and partly funded) by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Roots of this non-profit organization stem back to the congressionally mandated National Security Commission on AI, a now-defunct committee of industry and former government officials who were charged with informing and issuing guidance on the Defense Department’s use of artificial intelligence. Schmidt served as the NSCAI’s commissioner and was the inaugural chair of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board.

Broadly, the buzzy realm of generative AI underpins the making of large language models that can produce audio, software code, images, text, videos and other content when humans prompt them. 

“We are still in the early stages of generative AI development. The technology’s capabilities, limitations, and sources are rapidly changing, and will continue to evolve, potentially in areas that we cannot yet predict. Therefore, it is important to urgently position the DOD to both capitalize on today’s early use cases and prepare for increasingly powerful and sophisticated models, including artificial general intelligence and superintelligence,” SCSP officials wrote in the new memo.

In that light, the experts are pressing the department to set up the proposed Defense Experimentation Unit as a new hub that can drive operational experiments and applications with AI models for diverse U.S. military missions. The aim would be to enable “their broader and faster deployment and mainstreaming” across the Joint Force.

“DEU’s mission would be to advance the use of generative AI and other key technologies in the DOD through an iterative and continuous process of experimentation, learning, and development,” according to the panel.

“To accomplish this, the DEU would build a ‘sandbox environment’ for generative AI experimentation and concept development that is accessible DOD-wide; develop new generative AI capabilities for use in the sandbox environment; emphasize partnerships with front-line units, field-to-learn processes, rapid iteration, and concept exploration; and establish feedback mechanisms to quickly and consistently share lessons learned from experiments to the entire DOD,” they wrote.

The unit could support or partner with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit — which is focused on helping the military acquire commercial tech — to identify and acquire new capabilities, or “augment and leverage the infrastructure and standards” set by the Chief Digital and AI Office, they noted.

The panelists propose that the unit be stood up by Jan. 1, 2024 and report to the deputy secretary of defense. The experts also recommend allotting $20 million annually to fund the organization.

The other “concrete steps” DOD should urgently pursue, the group suggests, involve building an automated orchestration platform to complete associated tasks, and facilitating the development of defense-tailored generative AI models.

Opportunities for how the Pentagon might integrate such advanced models across different sets of its components’ critical activities are also listed in the new memo. 

The experts repeatedly warn that China’s government and military “are fusing mechanization, informatization, and ‘intelligentization’” to “leapfrog” all branches of America’s armed forces. 

“We are in a decisive decade of military competition with China. For the past three decades, the People’s Liberation Army has invested in technologies, concepts, and institutional changes to undermine U.S. military capabilities. Today, generative AI is driving a fundamental change in how we interact with computers, and therefore how militaries can harness AI and robotics to deter, fight, and win wars. Generative AI should be used to help invalidate the PLA’s investments, increase their uncertainty, reduce risk, and ultimately, help prevent conflict,” Justin Lynch, SCSP’s senior director for defense, said in an email to DefenseScoop on Friday.

With this memo, SCSP simultaneously released its new “Memo to the President and Congress on the Implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence for the U.S. Intelligence Community.” 

Both proposals will be parts of the SCSP’s forthcoming report, “Generative AI: The Future of Innovation Power,” which is slated to publish Sept. 12.

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But there will be challenges in convincing everyone in the Department of Defense to see beyond their own immediate needs, Brown said.

“The challenge here is having all of our service members understand the big picture, and why this is so important, why we need to modernize and what’s at stake,” Brown said during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “From that perspective then, you step away from your own parochial interests, and then we do what’s best not just for your part of the organization, but what’s best for the entire organization.”

In his three years as the Air Force’s top officer, Brown has been a staunch advocate for the service’s modernization programs. In his “Accelerate Change or Lose” manifesto, he emphasized the importance of advancing the Air Force’s technological capabilities in order to deter U.S. adversaries.

While he acknowledged that some modernization efforts during his tenure have made more progress than others, Brown pledged to bring his aggressive mindset on modernization with him as chairman, if confirmed. 

“We’ve got to be able to do that a bit more across the force, and put what’s best out front for the force to ensure we’re doing the right things to protect the nation and our national interests,” Brown said.

In the past, Brown has been focused on fleshing out a number of Air Force modernization initiatives. He has prioritized investments in the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) — which serves as the service’s contribution to the Pentagon-wide effort known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) — as well as capabilities that would turn the Air Force into a more data-centric service.

In written responses to advance policy questions from senators, Brown also pointed to a number of key modernization initiatives that are needed to stay ahead of U.S. adversaries. 

In addition to enhancing interoperability between U.S. military branches and allies and partners, Brown wrote that the Defense Department “should focus investments on advanced technologies, such as cyber defense, space-based assets, and unmanned systems, that can help maintain a competitive edge.”

He committed to continuing the department’s efforts to defend against adversary hypersonic weapons, which are especially difficult to detect and defeat due to the high speeds they fly at and their ability to maneuver mid-flight. That includes the Space Development Agency’s upcoming constellation of missile warning and missile tracking satellites, according to his written responses.

“Active U.S. missile defense will require advanced technologies to provide greater efficiencies for U.S. active missile defense capabilities, to include space-based sensors and boost-phase defense capabilities,” Brown wrote. “The exploitation of space provides a missile defense posture that is more effective, resilient, and adaptable.”

There are other modernization efforts at the Pentagon experiencing shortfalls, Brown said in some of his written responses. For example, he noted that the joint force’s integration of electronic warfare into operations is a “work in progress.”

On a broader note, Brown acknowledged difficulties in internally developing innovative technologies at the DOD, as well as acquiring them from the commercial sector. He wrote that one of the challenges in this area is the inability to bridge the so-called “valley of death” in acquisitions where promising technologies fail to transition from research and development into production and fielding.

When asked about the Pentagon’s acquisition of new tech during the confirmation hearing, Brown said there is much to improve upon.

“We have great innovation here within our nation, and we want to make sure that we’re putting that into the hands of our warfighters as quickly as possible,” he told lawmakers. “I also believe there’s an iterative process to this. … There are so many things that are software-based today, and if we knock down any barriers to be able to move faster, I’m all for it.”

But like with accelerating change across the joint force, removing acquisition roadblocks that stifle innovation with commercial industry will also require a mindset shift, he said. 

“It’s not a flip of a switch, it’s a culture change that takes a bit of time to get it bought into the force and start to move,” he added.

Brown was mostly met with accolades from both Republican and Democratic senators during his confirmation hearing. If confirmed, he would succeed Gen. Mark Milley as the top officer in the U.S. armed forces.

However, his path to becoming the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff currently faces a roadblock due to Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blanket hold on senior military confirmations.

The senator’s protest of the Defense Department’s abortion policies has put a halt to the Pentagon’s senior leader appointments — a move that has since left the Marine Corps without a confirmed commandant in the wake of Gen. David Berger’s retirement earlier this week.

When asked about the holds during his confirmation hearing, Brown said the blocks to military appointments will eventually have a trickle-down effect and create issues that may exacerbate the Pentagon’s current retention challenges.

“Because we have more junior officers who now will look up and say, ‘If that’s the challenge that I’m gonna have to deal with in the future, I may not want to [stay in the armed forces]. I’m going to balance between my family and serving in a senior position.’ And we will lose talent because of those challenges,” Brown said.

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The TIDE 2023 gathering, slated for Aug. 30 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia, will be set up like a trade show and attendees may have opportunities to display and showcase their prototypes, according to a Department of Defense request for information posted on Sam.gov.

“The DoD and U.S. interagency partners use TIDE to gain situational awareness and understanding of the state-of-play of innovative technologies in a specified focus area to inform decision-making that enhances strategic and operational capabilities. TIDE 2023 seeks to discover emerging capabilities that may produce surprising impacts during future conflicts,” per the RFI.

More specifically, the Pentagon is on the hunt for “unknown” capabilities as well as “unanticipated” applications for commercial tech.

“Technology advances at a difficult pace for anyone to track, introducing novel solutions capable of previously un-heard of applications. TIDE 2023 is seeking innovative prototypes that may improve current military capabilities or unlock new approaches that are not feasible with existing technologies,” the RFI states.

Additionally, the DOD is interested in “leveraging proven existing commercially available technologies and applying them asymmetrically to achieve previously unforeseen impacts. This technology may include repurposing algorithms or sensors, modifying autonomous vehicles for new payloads, or using novel materials and chemistries for new applications.”

The department also seeks innovations — such as novel materials and manufacturing processes, or improvements in artificial intelligence and autonomy — that would enable the deployment of capabilities “at a scale or speed that challenges the adversary’s ability to react,” according to the special notice.

Moreover, the Pentagon is looking for solutions to counter adversaries’ technologies, such as tools that would disrupt their sensors, communications, or other capabilities across warfighting domains including air, land, sea, space, cyberspace, or the electromagnetic spectrum.

Technology developers in industry, academia and government that hope to be invited to participate in TIDE 2023, can respond to the RFI and submit applications describing their innovations. Responses are due by June 16.

Participation in the event could lead to “follow-on collaboration, support for further development, and/or fielding of matured capabilities,” per the RFI.

The Office of Innovation and Modernization, which is sponsoring TIDE 2023, is a component of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

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Guided by the 2022 National Defense Strategy, the 11-page document outlines three key lines of effort for the department’s S&T initiatives: joint operations, rapid experimentation and prototyping, and ensuring the foundations for research and development.

The strategy highlights technological advancements made by China, considered to be the United States’ top military competitor, and emphasizes the need to stay ahead while evolving to support modernization. 

“The NDSTS articulates the science and technology priorities of the department and makes recommendations on the future defense research and engineering enterprise,” Nina Kollars, advisor to Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, said during a roundtable with reporters Monday ahead of the strategy’s release. “The NDSTS articulates the fundamental steps the department will take to sharpen our competitive edge in science and technology in order to ensure enduring advantages.” 

The Defense Department will also send an implementation plan to Congress within the next 90 days, Kollars said.

“We will make the necessary adjustments to our internal processes, our engagement with the technological innovation base, and our industrial posture to address the emerging dynamics of this era of strategic competition,” the strategic vision stated. “Our strategy aligns new mechanisms for supporting research and development with more effective pathways for acquisition and sustainment. At the same time, we will divest from outdated legacy systems and leave behind risk-averse processes.”

Science and technology is considered a critical part of the Pentagon’s research, development, test and evaluation activities. In its fiscal 2024 budget request, the department is asking for $17.8 billion to fund S&T initiatives, including funding for basic research, applied research and advanced technology development.

The new strategy highlights the importance of leveraging critical emerging technologies and enabling them for joint operations. This includes making investments in the Pentagon’s 14 “critical technology areas,” better utilizing data that can be used for analytics, and conducting joint experimentation and prototyping.

During a webinar hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association in April, Shyu noted that joint operations are a driving factor for the NDSTS.

“Everything we’ve been doing is very much focusing on the joint warfighting capabilities, and what we need to do to fight as a joint force,” she said. “So the capability we need to develop in that arena is what’s driving a lot of our focus — especially in the prototyping and experimentation phase.”

These efforts are key for the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), Shyu added. That initiative is aimed at identifying prototypes and putting them through their paces as a way for emerging technologies to be quickly fielded to combatant commanders to satisfy joint warfighting needs.

The push for better experimentation is also fueling efforts in physics-based modeling and simulation capabilities. That will help the Pentagon conduct technology tests and create data that will help inform how the tech impacts the joint mission, she said.

“Developing highly accurate campaign-level system-of-systems models and simulations will help us identify capabilities and determine the mission contributions of specific technologies,” the new S&T strategy stated. “Integrating physics-based models into campaign-level system-of-systems models will improve the accuracy of our assessments. These robust models and simulations will be coupled with comprehensive technology watch and horizon scanning efforts to inform future critical technology investments.”

The document also points to the need to foster a more vibrant defense innovation ecosystem and ensure that crucial tech is actually delivered to warfighters. It promises to bridge the so-called “valley of death” — a phenomenon that occurs when the Pentagon fails to transition promising technology from R&D into production and fielding — by spearheading new pathways to rapidly experiment with capabilities and deliver them at scale. 

This calls for the DOD to improve collaboration with its international allies and partners, as well as working with the Defense Innovation Unit and other organizations that regularly engage with non-traditional partners and commercial companies.

“We’re going to step away from conventionally thinking the Department of Defense can be solely responsible for science and technology that is defense relevant, and really think about this … as a collaborative effort from the very beginning — from early basic research all the way to acquisition,” Kollars said.

In addition, closing the S&T valley of death also will require innovation in industrial processes, protecting critical technologies from adversaries and frequently transitioning capabilities from prototypes into products.

Finally, the Pentagon plans to strengthen its research-and-development enterprise by revitalizing both existing laboratory and test infrastructure and modernizing digital infrastructure, Kollars said.

The department also plans to improve how it recruits, retains and cultivates its S&T workforce, she noted.

“Working with our allies and partners, as well as industry, we will align research and engineering with acquisition to rapidly field new capabilities at speed and scale. We will also ensure the foundation for future research and development by investing in our people and the infrastructure they need,” the NDSTS stated.

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Recent breakthroughs in this emerging technology field (demonstrated via buzzy tools like ChatGPT) have led to it making waves online in recent months — with many speculating how the capabilities might radically shift human approaches to content creation.

The Defense Information Systems Agency confirmed last week that it’s considering adding generative AI to its forthcoming tech watchlist. And now, members supporting another Defense Department element — the Defense Innovation Board, or DIB — are exploring such technologies’ potential to enhance the impending reports and resource materials they are tasked to produce to support the Pentagon’s innovation efforts.

During the board’s Winter Board Meeting hosted at the Pentagon this week, former assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, Dr. Will Roper, who was appointed to serve on the DIB in October, alluded to his team’s intent using ChatGPT-like AI technology. 

After the DIB’s most recent meeting, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu directed the board to steer two studies through which they will deliver new insights and recommendations related to the National Defense Science and Technology (S&T) Strategy review and DOD’s strategic investment capital (SIC) to Pentagon leadership.

Speaking in his role as the board’s SIC Task Force chair, Roper noted that officials want generative AI to “join” their effort.

“One, to help with writing — and two, it’s a good reminder for us that there is a lot of innovation happening outside the DOD that’s going to be transformative,” Roper said Wednesday during the public portion of the latest DIB meeting.

“This will be a very palpable reminder to us — as we write a report in collaboration with AI — that we’re trying to get department advice about how to be a better partner with companies that won’t just change the military, they’ll change in terms of how we’ll be engaging,” he added. 

To carry out their specific review, Roper said the task force will dive into the multitude of processes, investments, and incentives currently impacting the Defense Industrial Base.

DIB members have also launched a new online survey to crowdsource information about how the DOD can be a better business partner with dual-use and other companies. A subset of those who respond to that survey will eventually be interviewed by the SIC Task Force for anecdotes and personal stories to include in their full report.

Roper did not clarify how the board specifically plans to apply generative AI during the meeting and did not respond to questions from DefenseScoop prior to publication. However, in a brief response to inquiries, a spokesperson from the Office of the Secretary of Defense did confirm that the DIB Task Force “will use publicly available AI tools to test and demonstrate the usefulness of existing technology.” 

“This will serve as a demonstration on how to adopt innovation,” the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

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“The contract will establish a Historically Black Colleges and Universities-led University Affiliated Research Center consortium to execute research focused on tactical autonomy that will aid in the transition of research into practical applications. Work will be performed at the awardee’s facility and consortium members’ campuses and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2028,” according to a Defense Department announcement released late Thursday.

The Air Force Research Lab, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, is the contracting activity.

The initiative will focus on three main areas as it relates to autonomous systems: trust, collaboration between platforms, and human-machine teaming, Air Force Chief Scientist Victoria Coleman told reporters last year when plans for the HBCU-led project were first unveiled.

It comes as the U.S. military pursues new artificial intelligence technology and more autonomous unmanned systems such as robotic wingmen.

“Part of the future of the military is going to be autonomy … and we need to be at the front edge of that. And this is an opportunity to tap into universities that have an enormous amount of capability in science and technology,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters last year.

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Based on an “understanding that there’s a lack of just testing standards — or even more open, flexible testing, evaluation, verification, validation — available for intelligent autonomous systems,” these in-the-making AI hubs and the overarching ecosystem will provide Defense Department teams with “one common testing and evaluation capability” for the emerging technology, Kim Sablon, principal director for trusted AI and autonomy in the Pentagon’s R&E directorate, told DefenseScoop in an interview on Monday.

Sablon previously steered Army Futures Command’s science and technology efforts before taking on her new role.

“Coming into this position, there’s been a lot of discussions on some of the challenges with accelerating development of AI-enabled capabilities for the department. What we’ve found is that each R&D lab is often conducting AI research and developing their own AI research portfolios consisting of AI operations, AI models, AI datasets and software development tools — with very little to no reuse across the laboratories,” she said. “So, with the limited AI R&D compute and storage [capabilities] it just makes sense to look across and say, ‘Okay, what do we need to do to accelerate things?’”

Her team is now working closely with the DOD’s Testing Resource Management Center to stand up the new hubs — as well as the nascent Chief Digital and AI Office to confront duplication or deficiencies spotted in the broad enterprise along the way that could impact deployments down the line. 

Hubs and sub-hubs

Once fully realized, officials envision an AI-driving ecosystem that unites the Pentagon’s operational and R&D communities to more seamlessly share data and experiment in common model repositories. It’s ultimately meant to “empower collaboration,” Sablon said, between “the many service-level AI projects that are not connected, that are often disjointed, and where there’s overlap.”

“It’s truly a collaborative activity that pulls together those individual programs from across” all the service branches, she noted.

Officials have chosen three major AI hubs to each focus on specific areas: image processing, signal processing, and modeling and reasoning.

The image processing hub looks at electro-optical/infrared, lidar types of images, while the hub that hones in on signal processing combines sonar, radio frequency and associated technologies.

For modeling and reasoning “we’re pulling all the information within these specific data domains across the image processing and signal processing, and thinking through how we generate … several different courses of action where efforts across the enterprise can be integrated into a single [modeling and simulation] environment to encourage common testing and evaluation,” Sablon said. 

There are also sub-hubs under those larger umbrellas that organize more niche and nuanced pursuits. Sablon added that “there might be sub-hub areas that we may expand towards, but that’s under discussion right now as we’re looking at future budgetary plans.”

In her view, multimodal sensing and multimodal perception are vital to DOD as it continues “to push forward across AI and autonomy.” Part of the challenge, though, is that it requires data collection and model development across specific — and typically siloed — domains.

“Considering the growing needs here, we’ve decided that these were the [three] areas where we could really have an impact,” Sablon said, by bringing together top techies from across the military to confront obstacles around how the military captures, organizes and shares data for AI.

“There’s a lot that can be done in improving just the data-labeling efficiency and quality — especially when we’re talking about sonar, like for underwater situational awareness. So, really targeting some of the gaps, but areas also where there are pockets of activities across the enterprise that can be brought together, can really again bolster our capability in that space, especially as we drive towards multimodal perception,” she told DefenseScoop.

‘By the spring we’ll be well on our way’

The DOD R&E directorate started forming these new AI hubs towards the end of fiscal year 2022, and is now in the process of deeply assessing the shared tools needed across all of the different topic areas. 

Simultaneously, Sablon said, they are also engaging closely with the CDAO to ensure there’s a clear grasp across components of what that data architecture to support collaboration needs to look like. 

“There’s a lot of work right now, ongoing, to just level-set capabilities across the hubs. And I anticipate by the spring we’ll be well on our way,” she said. “And in the meanwhile, the teams across the services are collaborating in this space more than we’ve ever seen before and really building upon similar or even previous research that’s been conducted elsewhere.” 

Officials involved have not yet determined which commercial cloud capabilities — if any — might be tapped to underpin this planned data-sharing and AI-enabling infrastructure. They’re evaluating a variety of relevant capabilities that DOD already has access to at this point, but Sablon didn’t delve into the possibility of solicitations associated with this work in the future.

Officials have ambitious goals for the artificial intelligence hubs.

“In the case of signal processing, what we want to ultimately have is the ability to show more of a common cross-service data generation,” as well as testing and evaluation tools with common data networks and “common data wrangling and labeling tools to be shared across the AI sonar efforts,” Sablon explained. 

The modeling and reasoning hub will pave the way for a “multi-service course of action, AI leaderboard,” to supply a common modeling picture that “can certainly encourage or support JADC2 interoperability,” she added — referring to the Pentagon’s ambitious plan for next generation Joint All-Domain Command and Control. 

“So, there will certainly be a transition of various Army and even Navy maneuver data to that common network and development environment there,” Sablon said. 

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The important Navy post has not been filled by a Senate-confirmed official since James “Hondo” Geurts stepped down as assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition near the end of the Trump administration. Frederick Stefany has been serving as the acting assistant secretary for RD&A since January 2021.

Guertin is currently the director of operational test and evaluation of U.S. military weapon systems in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His nomination must be confirmed by the Senate before he can take on the Navy leadership role.

“He has an extensive four-decade combined military and civilian career in submarine operations, ship construction and maintenance, development and testing of weapons, sensors, combat management products including the improvement of systems engineering, and defense acquisition,” the White House said in the Friday announcement.

Notably, Guertin has previously been involved in applied research for government and academia in “software-reliant and cyber-physical systems” at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, according to his Defense Department bio.

His nomination comes as the Navy, and the Defense Department writ large, are putting more emphasis on software and cyber capabilities as the Pentagon pursues concepts like Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), which the Navy is contributing to as part of its secretive Project Overmatch effort.

“Over his career, [Guertin] has been in leadership roles of organizational transformation, improving competition, application of modular open system approaches, as well as prototyping and experimentation. He has also researched and published extensively on software-reliant system design, testing, and acquisition,” the White House said.

He previously served in the Navy Reserve as an engineering duty officer.

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Years in-development, those tangerine-ish colored lenses on notably dainty spectacles were one of multiple mechanisms and capabilities AFRL officials highlighted for Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks during her stop at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base last week. At that Ohio-based lab, Hicks received classified briefings largely focused on several research efforts and capability advances associated with counter-directed energy technology that she said “will pay off as we look at potential adversary use.”

“As we already know just from laser pointers at commercial aircraft, for instance, that [there’s] already manifested use of directed energy and lasers, against either civilian targets — or as we look at the military, potential use on a more significant scale. So, really good work going on here to get after that problem set on the material sciences side,” Hicks told reporters towards the end of her AFRL tour. “I’m very happy with what I saw.”

When lasers are pointed at pilots’ eyes — on the battlefield or during commercial flights — it makes it very hard for them to see and can even force them to completely lose visual acuity. It’s a federal crime to aim lasers at aircraft, but also increasingly more common. 

“It’s a huge threat to our pilots — both commercial and military,” Richard Vaia, AFRL’s chief scientist for materials and manufacturing, told reporters during a briefing at the lab. “There’s been reports in the news, open reports, of this impacting the military operations. So in Africa, Australia — Navy pilots [recently] reported lasers in the South China Sea. And just in general, the FAA has reported incidents that are just skyrocketing year-after-year from commercial pilots. So, folks using directed energy to change the behavior of our personnel is a threat.”

The lab has a large materials and manufacturing directorate-led program confronting that specific threat from different angles. Officials on the personnel protection team explore and develop capabilities that can protect structures, sensors, platforms and pilots’ eyes from laser strikes. They are working on pursuits that are “very far out there — putting nanostructures on surfaces so that you can actually reject certain wavelengths of light or route certain wavelengths of light,” Vaia said.

Many commercial manufacturers have created and offered laser eye protection in recent years to support military and police pilots, but the products generally work by filtering out green or red light largely associated with lasers. That change in views of certain light, though, can make it harder for pilots to see certain elements and color indications on the instrument control panels of the machinery they fly.  

Over the last decade, researchers and scientists have been pushing R&D of laser eye protection options that solve that problem. It all recently culminated in recent tests of Commercial Aviation Low Intensity (CALI) — a tool officials produced by modifying the cockpit compatibility design software developed for Defense Department laser eye protection, for commercial use. 

Matthew Lange is a research scientist who heads the personnel protection team. He named CALI, and with his retired predecessor Bryan Edmonds and many others helped pioneer the eyewear.

“We can make the CALI design in spectacles and ballistics,” Lange told FedScoop at AFRL, referring to the lab’s industrial partners who can manufacture the different technologies and components of the protective glasses — including sleek frames that cover the face but don’t interfere with ear covers pilots must wear while in the cockpit.

“CALI provides relevant protection that’s been designed using the Air Force tool, with cockpit compatibility in mind, and so it’s just a different mentality,” Lange said.

AFRL also relied on commercial-off-the-shelf dyes for the lenses. 

“For CALI, we used all [International Traffic in Arms Regulations] unrestricted protection levels as determined by the State Department,” Lange noted.

Pilots from the Washington State Patrol tested CALI out last year and ultimately shared rave reviews. When asked by FedScoop about plans to share the spectacles with other units or police departments, Lange responded that he “sent a box of these to the FAA, and they’re doing flight testing actively.”

“Presumably, there’ll be a policy statement when they’re done,” he added, noting that those tests will likely take a while. “But we’re expecting the first round of evaluations from the FAA soon. We hope to hear good news — but if we don’t, we’ll fix it.”

Given the sensitive nature of the topics, Hicks did not share much with reporters about her classified briefings at AFRL while on the trip, but she confirmed discussions were partially focused on in-development counter-directed energy applications.

“For both the Air Force and for the Space Force, this is a big issue area and an area where they have invested in over time,” Hicks said. “I was able to see capabilities already fielded, and then the potential for more capabilities down the road.”

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This conflict is spotlighting in real-time how rapidly deployable commercial capabilities will be essential to winning wars going forward, according to Brown, and the U.S. needs to shake-up some of its technology adoption processes to effectively prepare. 

“We’re seeing the change in front of our eyes in Ukraine — commercial technology is going to be more important and used in some new and different ways,” Brown told FedScoop in a recent interview. “I think it’s underscoring how important the mission of DIU is. As we think about warfare evolving over the next couple of decades, there’s going to be more and more of these commercial technologies that are going to be applied in warfare.” 

Launched in 2015, DIU was designed as a mechanism to help the Defense Department team with the commercial sector and field cutting-edge capabilities to the military more quickly and less costly than traditional government buying methods allow. It now has outposts in several of the nation’s tech hubs including Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, Chicago and Washington. Brown has led the unit for nearly four years and recently announced plans to depart in September when his term ends, despite an option to stay on.

He recently briefed FedScoop on a few of the challenges and activities that are shaping his final days steering DIU.

‘Game-changing’ tech for Ukraine

Since Russia invaded its neighbor in February, tech-savvy Ukranians have been leveraging several commercial technologies that DIU supported and worked on as part of its portfolio, including secure communications tools, drones and satellite imagery.

“As soon as we saw the events unfold and we saw the invasion was happening — with the U.S. getting involved to help NATO allies — we immediately highlighted the commercial technologies that we thought could be useful so that they would be able to be put on the security assistance lists that are provided to Ukraine and make sure that European Command, the force that’s working most closely with NATO, would have access to those,” Brown explained. Ukraine is not part of NATO but it is being supplied by members of the transatlantic alliance.

One of the less obvious of those DIU-supported capabilities that has enabled Ukraine to unleash “some pretty damaging effects” on the Russian military, in Brown’s view, is associated with synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This form of radar relies on different space-based sensors to provide satellite imagery of specific places of interest. 

“We’re used to satellite images that are optical, where you’re looking at pictures with very high-tech cameras,” Brown explained. “But now it’s possible to get a radar image. That way, you can see through cloud, and you can see at night — and this has been a game-changer in Ukraine.”

Because the technology is commercially made, Brown said the U.S. could quickly share it with partners and Ukranians on the ground to help them gain a tactical advantage very early in the conflict. 

“But also think about how the war unfolded, where the U.S. intelligence community was able to predict what was going to happen, frankly, flying in the face of what some thought, to say ‘No, [Russia’s Vladimir] Putin is amassing forces and he’s going to invade.’ And we were able to not only make that prediction, but share the pictures with the world,” Brown said. 

That technology is still being used to provide intelligence about the movements and actions of Russian forces.

“And we’ve combined that with some artificial intelligence to actually do battlefield assessments,” Brown added. 

When DIU initially started focusing on SAR technologies several years ago, officials’ original intent was to develop algorithms that would inform them of infrastructure destruction resulting from natural disasters.

“I live in California. So in California, wildfires are always on my mind. And we could give first responders a view of which roads were damaged or impassable, or what are the structures that now are gone,” Brown noted. 

Now, the technology is helping to analyze how combat zones — such as Ukrainian cities and infrastructure — are affected by warfighting.

“They can do battlefield damage assessments, as soon as missiles are flying in the air. So, the Ukrainians can get a color-coded view using commercial technology of what is the damage that’s just occurred because these missiles have flown. That’s an example of kind of a game-changing technology, in terms of closer to real-time situational awareness, that we’re able to give Ukrainians and something that DIU has worked on,” Brown said. 

DIU brought in a number of the vendors that are now contracted by the U.S. military to provide that imagery, Brown noted. Because it’s commercial technology, there were no classification issues to sort through and it could all be extended broadly without much lag time.

“We were able to scale up with a number of vendors that we’ve qualified so they could provide assistance in much higher quantities and much sooner than you might have with some of the more specialized gear,” he said.

Ideas for improvement

Commercial capabilities like SAR “are going to be needed on an ongoing basis and on an increasing basis” as warfare evolves to incorporate more and more digital assets, according to Brown. 

While he prepares for his departure from DIU, the director and his team have been pressing Pentagon leaders to reimagine legacy acquisition methods, budgeting processes and fielding approaches for commercial technologies, which develop on much faster cycles. 

Brown noted that his boss, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu recently published a list of 14 technologies that she views as critical for national security. 

“Eleven of those 14 are being led by the commercial sector,” Brown noted. “So for these technologies, the military really needs a way to access what’s happening outside, which is why DIU was set up.” 

Beyond gaining more awareness about emerging and applicable commercial solutions, the Pentagon also needs a revamped way to evaluate and adopt them much more frequently — because, according to Brown, new technologies in those key areas are being released every 12 to 18 months.

“We’ve advocated for something we call a ‘fast follower strategy’ where the military isn’t leading in the development of a technology … We need to be fast following what the commercial market is doing in areas like drones or commercial satellite imagery — and really have an alternative process that we’ve outlined, that would allow the military to more quickly assess and field those technologies,” he explained.

Brown suggested the DOD establish a new concept of “capabilities of record” that could parallel military budgeting for “programs of record.” The latter, part of a traditional acquisition setup that’s been used to procure fighter aircraft among other weapons and systems, focuses on specific requirements and often take decades to completely come to fruition. 

“With commercial technology, we need a different process,” Brown said, adding that a new approach would work in a very fast cycle where solutions can be fielded to the military as quickly as companies make them available — in that 12-18 month timeframe. 

There also needs to be a quicker way for government officials to sort out what DOD components might eventually be interested in buying the technologies. 

“That’s one of the keys with commercial satellite imagery and other commercial technologies — we have to know where that’s going to be bought. These technologies were not developed for a specific service. It wasn’t like, ‘Okay, new ship, that’s going to the Navy,’” Brown said.

DIU’s budget is another concern. 

The agency saw a $7 million reduction in funding from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2022. The director said that dip was partially a function of how the organization is “so small,” and didn’t initially have the new administration’s sharp focus.

In the forthcoming fiscal years, though, Brown believes that trend will likely be “corrected.”

“I think we’ve given some visibility to the fact that the budget has gone down in a time when commercial technology is ever more important — and, frankly, the combatant commanders and warfighters are asking for more commercial technology because it can be deployed so much more quickly,” he noted.

During his final months at DIU, the CEO-turned-federal director is also pushing the Pentagon to create a “hedge” for America’s traditional, large weapons platforms, with commercial tech.

“Why? Because our adversaries — in some cases, China — have stolen some of the designs for our major weapons platforms. I’m particularly thinking about aircraft. And certainly all our adversaries have had a chance to study our warfighting concepts [… and] how we go to war with the equipment that we have, because the U.S. has been so involved globally in quite a few conflicts,” Brown said. “So, I feel like we need a hedge to be able to bring an element of surprise that’s brought by commercial capabilities.”

He added: “The combination of that hedging of the large platforms with commercial capabilities, experimenting and bringing new concepts to warfighters, and then being able to ingest that capability quickly using speed as an element of competition is going to be something that we need to improve upon — and those are the ideas that we put forward.”

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