Before an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled ground computer system, Firestorm, introduced in 2020, the average time for the U.S. Army to detect and destroy a target was about 14 minutes. Now the time to pair the target with the best weapon system is reduced to just a few seconds! We are talking about battlefields where every minute literally matters.

Meanwhile new technologies are disrupting the battlefield to the extent where split-second decisions matter. In the face of this ever changing character of war and warfare, one thing that gives overmatch is ‘decision dominance’ in multi-domain operations. This can give a strong position of advantage over the adversaries and peer competitors on and off the battlefield.

Gaining decision dominance

AI-enabled Firestorm is just one example of the Army’s efforts to achieve, what it calls, ‘decision dominance’ across all warfighting domains with the help of AI and machine learning (ML) technologies.

A paper “Army Multi-Domain Transformation: Ready to Win in Competition and Conflict,” released by the U.S. Army in March 2021 defined decision dominance, enabled by convergence of cross-cutting technologies, as ‘a desired state in which commanders sense, understand, decide, act, and assess faster and more effectively than their adversaries’.

The U.S. Army’s Project Convergence, now in its third year, leverages “a series of joint, multi-domain engagements to integrate artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomy to improve battlefield situational awareness, connect sensors with shooters, and accelerate the decision-making timeline.”

AI/ML solutions

With their great transformative power, AI and ML are among the cross-cutting technologies that help achieve overmatch through human-machine teaming.

Started in 2020, Project Convergence, which is being conducted by Army Futures Command (AFC), is a campaign of learning to aggressively pursue an AI and ML-enabled battlefield management system.

Project Convergence 2022 (PC22) with a focus on the importance of synced technologies will demonstrate how the Combined and Joint Force solves operational and tactical problems through the application of Combined, Joint All-Domain Operations.