Speaking during his keynote speech at Space Symposium on Tuesday, Spacecom Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting outlined ongoing initiatives to deter and defeat adversaries. The efforts are framed by the combatant command’s new “elements of victory,” and include moves to operationalize new capabilities, develop new technologies and draft two new strategies — one focused on experimentation and another on AI and machine learning.

“Over the past year at U.S. Space Command, we’ve developed elements of victory: our best military judgement for what we think we need to win in a conflict,” Whiting said. “These five elements of victory are informed by lessons learned in other domains — from the best thinking across our Joint Force, exercises and modeling and simulation — and they tell us what we need for war-winning advantage and how we will win.”

Part of the initiative focuses on getting new capabilities for warfighters across Spacecom’s different mission areas. For example, Whiting said the command is working to operationalize a data-fusion system that can create a single common operating picture for missile warning and missile defense missions.

Announced last year as a pilot program to improve data-fusion capabilities, the effort looked to address Spacecom’s ability to digest and view space domain data from multiple systems on a single screen. Since initiating the program, the command has focused on developing a data integration layer for missile warning and missile defense systems and is now demonstrating the capability, Whiting noted.

“Now we’re moving forward with operationalizing this system and placing it on our [Joint Operations Center] floor,” he said. “In the coming months, we’ll be adding additional missions to that program.”

At the same time, Spacecom continues to support research and development of technologies to enable what it calls “dynamic space operations” — or the ability to quickly and continuously maneuver systems on-orbit in order to address emerging threats in that domain.

While the command has repeatedly stressed the need for more maneuverable satellites, the Space Force has put only small amounts of money into research for the capability — and whether or not that funding will continue in future years remains up in the air. Whiting stressed, however, that development of space maneuver capabilities is imperative for Spacecom, especially given recent advancements in China’s ability to freely move their on-orbit satellites. 

To support development, the command will co-sponsor an effort with SpaceWERX — the Space Force’s technology innovation arm — that focuses on sustained space maneuver, according to Whiting.

“We will soon be identifying 10 proposals for $1.9 million each in funding over a 15-month period of performance,” he said. “This effort will continue to invest in the most promising technology from commercial industry to help us solve the sustained space maneuver challenge, so we can bring this joint function to the space domain.”

Other Spacecom initiatives include the deployment of an additional next-generation mobile radar for space domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific; working with organizations across the Pentagon to field more agile command-and-control capabilities; and meeting new demands for offensive and defensive space control.

Along with additional technologies, Whiting said Spacecom is drafting two new strategies that will help the command better prepare for conflict in space. 

“To ensure we maximize our readiness for day-to-day operations so that we are ready for conflict, we are operationalizing the command’s first-ever experimentation strategy and artificial intelligence and machine learning strategy,” Whiting said. He added that the priorities for these strategies focus on space fires, operational space command and control, missile defeat effects, enhanced battlespace awareness, cyber defenses and the command’s business processes.

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Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti hinted at such a move last week at the WEST conference in San Diego.

“We’re exploring the establishment of a new rating, a robotics rating to build and develop a team for the next generation — a team who has the reps and sets in sensors, platform autonomy and mission autonomy programs, and who can provide input and machine learning feedback processes,” she said.

The CNO and other Navy leaders are pursuing a so-called “hybrid fleet” of crewed and uncrewed systems enabled by AI capabilities and other supporting technologies. The sea service is pursuing a variety of new drones and has been experimenting with unmanned aerial vehicles, surface vessels and undersea vehicles in multiple theaters.

“RW Sailors will enable Robotic and Autonomous System (RAS) operations and maintenance at the tactical edge. RWs will be the subject matter experts for computer vision, mission autonomy, navigation autonomy, data systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning on our RAS platforms,” according to the NAVADMIN announcement from Franchetti.

The new rating will initially be limited to a “small and highly selective” group of active-duty sailors, with the primary source ratings for robotic warfare conversions coming from personnel currently or previously assigned to billets in unmanned vehicle divisions and sailors who have earned applicable Navy Enlisted Classification codes.

“E-4 through E-9 Active Duty Sailors meeting those criteria may submit an Electronic Personnel Action Request (NAVPERS 1306/7) to the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Enlisted Community Management Division (BUPERS-32),” per the announcement.

Applicable NEC codes, conversion package requirements and procedures can be found on the MyNavy HR robotics community website.

Mark Pomerleau contributed to this report.

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The DOD has been using so-called bug bounty programs, such as Hack the Pentagon, to discover cyber vulnerabilities. Now, it aims to apply a similar concept to look for flaws in artificial intelligence tools.

The so-called AI bias bounty, which is being sponsored by the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) and carried out in partnership with ConductorAI, Bugcrowd and BiasBounty.AI, will run from Jan. 29-Feb. 27, the Pentagon announced Monday.

Members of the public can register to participate and potentially earn financial rewards for their findings.

“The goal of the first bounty exercise is specifically to identify unknown areas of risk in Large Language Models (LLMs), beginning with open source chatbots, so this work can support the thoughtful mitigation and control of such risks. This exercise encourages public involvement (no coding experience necessary) to detect bias, and participants can earn monetary bounties based on scoring and evaluation by ConductorAI-Bugcrowd, funded by the DoD,” according to a release.

The total pot that will be distributed is $24,000, according to the event website, which says that the contest will run until March 11.

In the context of artificial intelligence, the Pentagon has defined bias as “the systematic errors that an AI system generates due to incorrect assumptions of various types.”

The bounty that was just launched is part of a broader Pentagon push focused on what the department calls “responsible AI,” including safeguards to mitigate the risk that algorithm-armed tools and weapons will go off the rails.

Last summer, the department issued a call for discovery papers as it looked for vendors to help establish and run the AI bias bounties.

The DOD plans to hold a second bounty soon, according to the release.

In a statement, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Craig Martell said the outcome of the bounties could “powerfully impact” the Pentagon’s AI policies and technology adoption.

The department has also stood up Task Force Lima to explore potential military use cases for generative AI.

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DefenseScoop reported earlier this month that Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks had recently selected a small number of capabilities — but not specific systems — that will be prioritized for the initial tranche, and that DOD officials planned to brief lawmakers in January. Those briefings are now underway, Aditi Kumar, deputy director for strategy, policy and national security partnerships at the Defense Innovation Unit, said Wednesday at a Hudson Institute event.

The goal for the first increment is to deliver thousands of relatively low-cost, “attritable” systems by early- to mid-2025 to help the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command counter China’s military buildup.

“Replicator is end to end … It is delivering the autonomous attritable systems into the hands of the warfighter. And so we are looking at all aspects of that project lifecycle. A lot of the initial focus was, let’s define the operational need, let’s make it really crisp. And we worked very closely with Indo-Pacom to do that … down to the specifics of: What day is it? What is the weather? What is happening? What are the target sets that we’re going after? And what are the types of capabilities that you need, no kidding, to really, you know, make a difference in that scenario?” Kumar said.

DIU has been tapped to help implement the initiative with support from the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO).

“The training piece of this is a huge focus. The information strategy piece of this is a huge focus. And so we’ve got all of the right experts, data and AI training … CDAO is a great partner in this helping us think through, you know what that piece needs to look like. So it’s bringing all of those together so that when we deliver this in the end, it is the full capability,” Kumar said.

Margaret Palmieri, deputy chief digital artificial intelligence officer, said autonomy is an area where the CDAO is working to help the Pentagon push out new capabilities.

She noted previous work done by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), which was eventually folded into the CDAO along with other Defense Department offices when the new organization was stood up.

“The Joint AI Center had started a really interesting project called ‘smart sensor’. They wanted a fully autonomous MQ-9 [drone], not just the aircraft vehicle, but the sensors. And so for several years, DOD has been looking at how do you really do unmanned autonomy enabled by AI. And so Replicator is actually just here at a really great time. We’re looking at, you know, how to do a … AI data hub as part of Replicator to accelerate that learning across multiple companies and different services. And so I think the autonomy use cases is front and center in our mind. And to bring those best practices, we are really focused on the scaffolding we call it — which are kind of not necessarily all of the potential AI projects that we could do inside of CDAO, but really how do we enable all of the other organizations inside the government to have access to labeled data and not have to go find it themselves?” Palmieri said at the Hudson Institute event.

She didn’t say when the envisioned hub might be established.

Now that Hicks has made her capability picks, Pentagon officials are in talks with lawmakers about the road ahead.

“We’re in the middle of briefing them right now on the capability selection, and all of the things that I just laid out our plans for delivering the capabilities. And I think it’s an interesting time, obviously, with the budget cycle to go to Congress with a portfolio. And so we’re working with them on the best funding strategies to realize what we’re trying to do with Replicator [increment] 1 … They’re a partner to us as we try to execute these initiatives, and Replicator is obviously going to be the priority over the coming weeks,” Kumar said.

Defense officials have indicated that they may be tight-lipped about certain aspects of Replicator, including which specific systems are selected to meet the capability needs.

“The services are identifying the specific systems. Our next step is to work with Congress. So we will be briefing them, we’re in the middle of briefing them, in fact, and having the funding conversation. I think on the public announcement, that’s going to be something that happens after we have completed our briefings to Congress. And it is also part of this broader information strategy that I mentioned is — we have to think through, you know, what parts of Replicator we want to speak about publicly, and then what parts we want to reserve because that is what the operational needs mandate. And so the department is working through those, and then we’ll share information at the appropriate time,” Kumar said.

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The special notice about the meeting, posted Jan. 19 on Sam.gov, comes as the Pentagon is pursuing a warfighting construct known as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), which is aimed at connecting the U.S. military’s various sensors, data streams and weapon systems — and those of its international allies and partners — under a more unified network for faster and better decision-making.

The so-called Innovation Outreach Solutions Meeting, slated for April 15-16 in McLean, Virginia, will be hosted by OSD’s innovation and modernization office — which falls under the research and engineering directorate — in partnership with the Joint Staff’s intelligence directorate (J2) and the Army’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance task force. Tech developers tapped to attend will conduct technical presentations and have a confab with Defense Department officials about their potential solutions for “unleashing data.”

“Information is central to all military functions. Rapid and reliable access to data is key to maintaining an enduring U.S. advantage in times of peace and crisis. As the network of data sources and decision-makers grows, as does the urgency to respond to emerging situations, so does the demand for the Department of Defense (DoD) to discover innovative solutions that enable the secure collection, storing, processing, monitoring, analyzing, and communicating of data at speed and scale,” the notice states.

The Pentagon is looking for tools that will ensure data is visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable and secure, according to the needs statement.

Technologies of interest include solutions for transmitting and receiving data and signals over distances greater than current capabilities allow; connecting systems with data sources located “anywhere from the stratosphere to the seafloor”; multi-path networks for operating in environments with connectivity interference or degradation; boosting bandwidth at reduced power; edge computing; and “novel approaches” for transferring data, such as quantum or laser tech.

However, better methods for moving data aren’t enough. The department also needs tools for processing the vast amount of information it collects. That includes capabilities to “triage” inflows and prioritize the most critical and time-sensitive info; automate the tagging, cataloging and storing of data so it can be quickly found and accessed when needed; integrate “thousands of inputs” from disparate sources; and detect “anomalies” in cyber networks in real-time with machine learning technologies.

To help decision-makers understand and trust the data they’re being fed, the Pentagon wants information visualization tools, algorithms that can identify and provide automated alerts about items of interest, and enablers for “confidently ingesting data and information into existing AI/ML capabilities and training next-generation algorithms,” per the needs statement.

Applications to participate in the meeting are due Feb. 22.

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The Senate earlier this year passed a provision as part of its version of the annual defense policy bill, that would have directed the secretary of defense to establish a new organization to support the requirements of U.S. Cyber Command along with other combatant commands, military departments and agencies. However, in the conference report for the reconciled version of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, House and Senate conferees noted that they took the provision out.

“The conferees agree that intelligence support to the planning and execution of cyber operations conducted below the level of armed conflict, for preparation of the operational environment, and at each level of operational art — strategic, operational, and tactical — must be substantially improved. The conferees believe that the causes of, and solutions to, this requirement are complex,” the report states. “The conferees are not prepared at this time to dictate a specific organizational solution, but expect the Secretary of Defense to generate and implement one.”

For years, dating back to when Cybercom was created, there have been talks about building the capability and capacity for developing organic cyber intelligence within the U.S. military. Relatedly, as cyber has grown in importance, there have been increasing discussions at the Defense Intelligence Agency regarding what constitutes foundational cyber intelligence.

Lawmakers are concerned because, of more than two dozen agencies that focus on intelligence, there isn’t a direct line out of Cybercom’s intelligence shop that focuses on nation-state threats from a military angle. For example, the military intelligence apparatus has very specific knowledge of adversary systems and specifications, but that’s not always the case in cyberspace.

The conference report notes that as a still maturing organization, Cybercom must improve its ability to define and articulate requirements for intelligence support, noting it’s likely the command will still require assistance from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The command is co-located and shares a leader with the NSA.

Moreover, the document suggests that the cyber mission force — the personnel each military service provides to Cybercom to conduct cyber operations — does not possess sufficient deep technical expertise nor adequate access to data to generate the required level of analysis organically.

“At the strategic and operational level, there is a clear need for improved foundational intelligence. The conferees are concerned that the Department of Defense will continue to fail to address this persistent shortfall without a legislative mandate and the creation of an organizational element dedicated to the task,” the report states.

“A significant portion of the target systems analysis support that is currently lacking could be provided under a decentralized, federated model based on cooperative teaming among the existing service intelligence centers (and the Department’s foreign material acquisition and human intelligence components). This would obviate the need to establish a new, separate center dedicated to the cyber domain, but making a coalition work effectively on a sustained basis could prove to be very challenging without a committed leadership entity. The conferees urge the Secretary to devise an effective and sustainable organizational solution,” according to the report.

Enduring dual-hat relationship?

The report notes that vital network and systems engineering analysis support for Cybercom likely can only be achieved through NSA partnership. However, NSA’s national intelligence mission and budget cannot be further burdened with the level of tailored support required for military operations, according to conferees.

Rather, the secretary of defense should provide funding for Cybercom, separate from the national intelligence budget, to acquire and sustain the required technical analytical capability and capacity. This should be done in stages, lawmakers say, beginning with a small-scale pilot to develop a practical model that can be replicated.

They also note that the administration reported another favorable review for the dual-hat arrangement, where Cybercom and NSA share a boss and are co-located.

The report notes that the foregoing assessment suggests that this partnership should be extended, with the Pentagon’s independent funding responsibilities clearly delineated.

“Accordingly, the conferees urge the Secretary of Defense to develop an organization, and provide funding, personnel, and a management plan for the intelligence collection and analysis necessary to support the missions of Cyber Command and the other combatant commands in the disciplines of foundational intelligence, target systems analysis, and network and systems engineering analysis,” the document says.

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“Hogy” — as his friends and colleagues know him — applies his prior 20 years of active duty Navy service to this role at the company that specializes in providing RPA, data analytics, program management, and consulting offerings to a variety of government entities.

RPA broadly refers to the use of intelligent software bots that automate time-consuming manual processes, many of which are required to run the U.S. government. 

“[People] hear that word ‘robotic’ and think of machines doing things. It’s really — how do we take technology and help enable processes?” Hogenmiller explained during a recent interview with DefenseScoop. “How do we take technology to help people free up from those mundane processes, so that they can work on more value-added tasks?”

Getting it right, with bots

Aeyon is the conglomeration of four existing companies that came together in recent years to collectively provide RPA and other digital transformation services they were each individually leading to support DOD and its military components, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and other federal teams.

Hogenmiller and his team aim to improve and automate their clients’ physical and digital processes to help them move faster — or, “as we like to say, ‘to innovate and accelerate,’” he said.

In a recent project for the Air Force, Aeyon has been automating processes to help the Air Force’s Freedom of Information Act Office respond to requests faster and more efficiently.

Officers involved in such work for the Air Force collect fees from their customers that they may not be eligible for if late for responses — so RPA “really helps them in getting that, cost recovery that they’re entitled to for doing the work,” Hogenmiller said.

In that FOIA-aligned RPA work, the agency is introducing automation to boost the routing of requests, and also bots that are further ensuring response accuracy.

“I know from my work in the Department of Defense — the worst thing that could happen is you inaccurately answer a FOIA request by either giving information that you shouldn’t have or not answering the correct question and it gets taken out of context,” the former Navy officer said.

For the Marine Corps, Aeyon is supplying automation supporting the transition of the service’s legacy financial management system to a modern one. Data migration processes are being automated, and accuracy is being applied to acquisition approaches in new ways.

One of the bots recently connected to that work and implemented for the force by Aeyon has already eliminated “about $15 million in reconciliation errors of somebody having to then spend time to go fix” data that was not properly documented in systems, Hogenmiller said.

“So, from that perspective, we look at the types of things that we’re doing there to really help make sure that that information is accurate — getting in the right place. And so again, we’re freeing them up to do other things, and using their domain expertise for the things that are most important,” he added.

Separately, the company is enabling Army-led RPA efforts to modernize that service’s acquisition program management.

Beyond a review of the force’s native applications to see where new processes can be integrated, officials here intend to review systems to see where financial information can be applied for budget monitoring, how schedule information can advance how the Army is meeting specific bureaucratic requirements, and more.

After two decades of Navy service, Hogenmiller went on to provide consulting to DOD for about 18 years.

“Having been out there and working to lead sailors and Marines out in the field — anything you can make the job more exciting and get out of the mundane tasks, I think — helps for morale perspective,” he told DefenseScoop. “So, as a leader, I really look at that as one of the [important] things, especially in this day and age where the workforce is tight, and we’re trying to retain people.”

Another major impact of RPA is reducing errors related to the fulfillment of government services and personnel processes.

“I always think back to my time, whereas the biggest thing that would affect my sailors is, ‘hey, they’re serving 3,000 miles away from home, and their pay is not correct” — ultimately leading to major, unnecessary strains on military families, he noted.

This situation is similar to “when you’re deployed, and you’re wanting to make sure that your repair parts in your logistics supplies are getting to the right place at the right time, the first time. There may not be an opportunity to get rerouted from that perspective,” Hogenmiller added.

Many of Aeyon’s employees come from a similar mold “in that we have prior military experience and we still remember what it was like to serve out there and something was not correct,” the CTO said. So, he and his colleagues are therefore passionate about alleviating mundane military tasks with RPA, while also ensuring “things get done right the first time.”

Emerging realizations

For years now, the Pentagon has been pushing the narrative that artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence can accelerate military operations.

More recently though, Hogenmiller is observing how many officials are beginning to grasp that AI isn’t built to bolster all applications out there.

“I think there’s now realization that, OK, artificial intelligence is going to be important as we deploy, like, weapon systems and unmanned weapon systems — but there’s applications for less-than-AI. Using machine learning low-code, no-code applications, like RPA in the business processes [can be] just as impactful as deploying artificial intelligence,” he said.

At conferences lately, he’s found that the commercial sector is also generally arriving at such notions.

Still, he acknowledged that bots can effectively serve most organizations as “a stepping stone for machine learning and some natural language processing,” at least in the near term.

“One of the things that we’re excited about with this kind of low-code, no-code approach is — I really believe that it is democratizes the domain expert,” Hogenmiller added.

Back when he was working with people engaging with datasets, he’d get intimidated when he’d have to ask certain officials for support because at times they’d have to learn entirely new and complex programming languages to achieve what he needed.

With “very simple” RPA tools “they can pick it up in the future as a low code, no code application — and then with those harder problems they can bring in a data scientist or programmer that needs to kind of do those [more sophisticated] AI algorithms,” Hogenmiller said.

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