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08 Feb 24. EUROSATORY 2024: Artificial intelligence at the heart of the show’s hot topics. From 17 to 21 June at Paris Nord Villepinte, EUROSATORY, the global event for Defence and Security (D&S), will be the year’s major international event for governments along with all public and private decision makers in the defence and security community.
The 2024 edition, which has extended its influence further than ever, will bring the entire D&S industry together around a comprehensive range of equipment and solutions to tackle all types of crises, from high-intensity conflicts to the humanitarian and environmental disasters specific to our century. High-level talks and panel discussions are also a top feature in this event.
Among the technologies on show and the themes addressed at the exhibition, artificial intelligence (AI) will be one of the 2024 exhibition’s hot topics. Indeed, it is proving to be a major innovation catalyst in the defence and security domains. Eurosatory 2024 will thus offer a unique platform to explore these technologies that have become unavoidable, as a security and sovereignty focal point for armed forces and governments.
Here we offer a closer look at the ubiquity of AI in the sector, its operational use and its repercussions on the international stage.
AN INTERNATIONAL “RACE TO AI” WITH THE FOCUS ON INNOVATION
As the reflection of industrial trends and those of D&S , a global “race to AI” has begun in which States are investing to maintain or gain a lead over the others.
The United States have developed a sizeable ecosystem incorporating cloud technology and its IA development and use doctrine, which combine to make it the undisputed leader of this race. China meanwhile has developed its own standardised system by massively investing in technology, especially in biometrics. It also holds the record for the number of scientific publications on the subject. In the area of standardisation, the European Union cannot be ignored, with the adoption on 9 December 2023 of its first legal text on the subject, the EU AI Act, by the European Parliament and Council.
FRANCE IN THE RACE TO AI
In this worldwide race to AI, France is fairly well-placed, particularly “with regard to its large businesses and its start-ups”, highlights the neuroscientist Quentin Montardy, also CEO of InMind-VR, a Eurosatory exhibitor, adding however the caveat that “French researchers tend to go abroad”.
The matter of sovereign AI is naturally essential, but should be placed into perspective in view of the dependence on an ecosystem initiated by the United States, in particular the cloud. According to Arnault Ioualalen, mathematician and CEO of Numalis, who will be present at Eurosatory, one way for France to position itself would be to fight on a different terrain by developing what he calls “frugal AI”, i.e. AI running on “less data and therefore greater sovereignty”. In his view, greater sovereignty in this area also involves the simultaneous and ongoing relaunch of a European semiconductor sector.
Arnault Ioualalen also argues that while the United States may be a few years (“about three years”) ahead of France in terms of doctrine, China is emerging as a major strategic competitor, investing and publishing on a massive scale: “What we are seeing is colossal investment. Where we are investing €500m, the Chinese are investing €50 bn…”.
What we are also seeing is China’s desire to “structure the AI ecosystem for their industry” through a standardisation strategy that has already been in place for five years. In Europe, a text designed to lead to the first legislation in this area – the so-called “EU AI Act” – was adopted on 9 December by the European Parliament and Council. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS A DUAL TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO D&S PRESS RELEASE February 2024
Further information at: www.eurosatory.com EUROSATORY 2024 media platform: https://eurosatorymedia.tv Media enquiries: Jérôme Saczewski – Célia Forest – Blanche Bobin-Parra – Robin Gorizian
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS A DUAL TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO D&S
In June this yeat, EUROSATORY will bring the D&S world together to discuss the major issues facing the sector, with over a hundred talks and almost 2,000 international exhibitors from more than 60 countries (start-ups, SMEs, ETIs and major world-leading groups), as well as 40 international pavilions. Once again, EUROSATORY will reflect the global dynamics of D&S, highlighting the growing importance and diversity of AI in research and innovation.
The use of AI in D&S has been driven by the rapid rise of cloud computing and graphics cards. Cloud computing has provided data storage and processing capacity on an unprecedented scale, enabling players in the defence and security sector to exploit massive quantities of information. At the same time, developments in graphics cards have been a key driver of this dynamic, enabling exponential computing of data.
Today, industrial applications applied to D&S activities can be grouped into three main categories:
- Image processing, which will significantly improve detection and classification, will be particularly useful in the fields of video surveillance and target tracking, applicable to all military operations, particularly intelligence operations;
- Time series processing (i.e. the evolution of a variable over time, such as temperature, vibration or fuel consumption) will help, for example, to anticipate potential vehicle or aircraft failures;
- Natural language processing is particularly useful in the field of intelligence, as it enables a great deal of work to be done in summarising documents and information.
However, the integration of AI into D&S operations depends in particular on their reliability and standardisation. The reliability of AI is as yet empirical, and requires considerable efforts in terms of reliability and standardisation in order to increase confidence in these tools and guarantee flawless data processing.
Eurosatory 2024 will provide an opportunity to take stock of the major advances in artificial intelligence (AI) applied to Defence and Security. AI-related technologies are significantly transforming these fields, providing innovative solutions to reinforce interior security and the capabilities of military and security forces, and thus meet increasingly complex challenges.
AI: ALREADY OPERATIONAL TARGETED MILITARY APPLICATIONS
AI has a large number of applications in D&S systems, such as autonomous navigation, autonomous systems and robotics, planning, data analysis and predictive intelligence to anticipate potential threats, decision support, logistics, predictive maintenance, cybersecurity and electronic warfare, facial recognition and biometrics, simulation and training, the health of men and women in the field (soldiers, police officers, etc.), and so on.
Here are just a few examples that will be at the heart of the innovations at Eurosatory 2024.
- DECISION SUPPORT
AI provides qualified information to the armed forces, defence, civil security and crisis management authorities at different levels of the chain of command. However, it is not a substitute for human expertise and final decision-making. AI acts above all as an aid to decision-making, by improving and speeding it up, particularly in the land sector.
According to General Pierre Schill, Chief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT), “The integration of this technology into weapons systems and our staff processes is imperative if we are to retain the initiative: making decision-making loops more reliable and faster, making the most of data, optimising the individual potential of soldiers, helping to design manoeuvres, etc.” This also means adapting our people through training to ensure that they understand data and use it to best effect.
06 Feb 24. U.S. Southern Command Urges Space Conference Attendees to ‘Think Big.’
It is absolutely crucial for the United States and its partners in the Western Hemisphere to address the centrality of space, and U.S. Southern Command hosted the annual Space Conference of the Americas to discuss the way ahead for space cooperation and interoperability.
“We must think big,” said Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, at the beginning of the conference last week. “The enemy is not waiting for us to think big and move out. They are moving out each and every day in your countries. And we’ve got to do it faster. And we’ve got to be working overtime because our adversaries wake up each and every day trying to figure out how they’re going to do an end run around us.”
The conference, held in Miami, attracted 10 partner nations: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Officials with U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Space Command also attended and participated. This was the third annual space conference.
The conference is all about advancing space cooperation. “This is what the power of partnership is,” Richardson said. “This is how we move mountains. This is how we move planets. This is how we move forward in a domain that is so important.”
The general said that the importance of the space domain has been manifest for years, yet “it keeps getting treated like it is new. We’ve got to get over it. is not new, and we need to move our partnership and we need to move out on working together.”
Space is key to many earth-bound capabilities important throughout the hemisphere. Maintaining space capabilities matters not only to military purposes, but to telecommunications, economic, research and navigation needs.
Cooperation in the hemisphere is not merely a choice, but an absolute necessity given the complex world situation, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert D. Davis, the operations chief at U.S. Northern Command. “Our competitors and our adversaries seek to exploit our perceived weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the space domain,” he told the conference attendees. “This jeopardizes our respective nations’ ability to protect and project national power; deter and counter aggression; and accomplish our objectives.”
Army Maj. Gen. Brian W. Gibson, the director of plans and policy at U.S. Space Command, said now is the time to make these plans. Now is the time to work out systems and procedures in the space domain. There is competition in space, he said, and there is “certainly the desire to do things together. And we must. If we don’t approach common interests together, when we are faced with the reality that we must , we likely won’t do it as well.”
U.S. Space Force Chief Master Sgt. Jacob C. Simmons, U.S. Space Command’s senior enlisted leader, also attended the conference giving the enlisted perspective to the attendees.
There needs to be a strategy governing the use of space in the hemisphere, said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Thomas G. Allan Jr., U.S. Southern Command’s director of operations. He said he wanted the conference attendees to discuss the importance of space, but also what that strategy needs to be, and he urged the attendees to start building that together.
The attendees did work together. “We identified several bilateral and multilateral opportunities, including increasing participation in Exercise Global Sentinel; concluding additional Space Situational Awareness Data Sharing agreements; and developing a common space doctrine to enhance interoperability,” Spacecom’s Gibson said. (Source: U.S. DoD)
05 Feb 24. World Defense Show 2024 under the esteemed patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, welcomed a flood of visitors today, the first day of public opening, and the second day of the globally important event. Central to the attractions was the new Defense Space Arena, incorporating the Space Theatre and the Defense Space Domain.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Defense in Saudi Arabia (MoD), the Defense Space Domain is a central highlight of the show. This immersive area offers an engaging and interactive introduction to space defense development. The vast potential of space capabilities, technologies, and solutions is highlighted on video screens, with exciting digital content from major industry players including BAE Systems, Boeing Space, Leo Labs and Lockheed Martin. Physical and digital space assets from both industry and institutions are also on display, demonstrating the evolution of the technology.
Visitors can also experience a walkthrough of a Space Station simulation, where digital screens provide information on the role and importance of the space domain, illustrating the critical role of space in shaping future global military capabilities.
The Space Theatre’s opening day featured two insightful sessions. The first, “The Interface between Space and Defense in Saudi Arabia” included panelists Dr. Mohammed Ali Alghamdi and Eng. Abdulrahman Nasser Alkhalaf from GAMI, along with Brigadier General (retired) Abdullah Alajmi, Business Development Director at Lockheed Martin Space, KSA. Amy Hopkins, Peraton Vice President, expertly moderated the discussion. The second session, “Space – The Challenges and Need for Collaboration” featured panelists Dan Tenney from Lockheed Martin, Morena Bernardini, General Secretary at MBDA, and Elias Montanari, a Global Space Programme and Ecosystem Expert, with moderation by Ben Baseley-Walker, Founder of Andart Global The Space Theatre will continue for the next three days, with industry leaders giving professional insights into the innovations and pioneering technologies defining the future of space; the challenges of governance in space and the need for international collaboration; the potential for defense and space interoperability; and the advantages of diversity in the space sector, among other exciting topics.
Andrew Pearcey, Chief Executive Officer of World Defense Show, said: “The success of the Defense Space Arena is a testament to World Defense Show’s pivotal role in fostering international collaboration in the most crucial areas of defense and security. The show serves as a dynamic platform for sharing insights and strategies among the global defense community, contributing significantly to the advancement of worldwide defense and space capabilities.”
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