Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Cases For The Defense Sector

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely accepted as the most influential technological game-changers of recent times. It’s convergence with other related technologies, especially the Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics, has tremendous applications in defense sectors.

AI development

AI has created quite an impact on the defense sector. It is pretty evident from the fact that the global AI defense market was valued at the US $ 7.7 Billion in 2018 and is expected to reach the US $ 18.82 Billion by 2025. The potential for AI is present in all the domains of defense like land, air, water, cyberspace, intelligence, and including political, strategic, tactical, and operational warfares.

Assessing AI readiness in Defense

The defense sector heavily relies on general and confidential information on people, places, financial securities, nations, anti-nationals, cyber world, etc. This vast pool of data, when harnessed, will determine the readiness of the defense sector to warfares. Assessing and analyzing the sector’s readiness influences the entire process of military decision-making, right from tactical operations, force structure to financial budgets. AI can handle and tackle this readiness by harnessing the data acquired from various sources and empower the sector by providing futuristic war systems that are dominated by intelligent and unmanned robots, information processing, intelligence analysis, data analysis, wargaming simulation, and training, etc.  

AI Applications in Defense

Following is some of the areas where AI is already making its presence felt-

  • Intelligence and Surveillance

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning with Geospatial analysis help in extracting valuable and confidential intelligence from various sources and connected equipment like radars, cyberspace, patrol aircraft, automatic identification systems, etc. This information will reveal or predict any illegal, unsafe, threatening, anomalous, and/or other suspicious activities and alert the concerned personnel. The robots that are powered with AI and Computer Vision and integrated with IoT are capable of interpreting images for target identification and classification. Governments that leverage AI in their defense mechanism gain an edge in war scenarios with the insights obtained from intelligence and surveillance. China and the US are the most predominant nations that are leveraging AI in their defense activities.

  • Weapons

New-age weapons systems come with embedded AI which enhances the efficiency of weapons and decreases their dependency on humans. The expert system of diagnosis and predictive maintenance of equipment and sophisticated weapons like radars, missiles, etc bring in more synergy in operations. The Machine Learning models and algorithms help in determining the target range of missiles, performing trajectory analysis for kill zones, provide launch time and simulation to assist in the qualifying missile. Camera-equipped robots that are powered with AI have the features of remote firing, extracting injured personnel, etc without causing any human loss.

  • Cyber Security

Cybersecurity is one of the main areas where the defense leverages AI technologies to curb cyber-attacks as these attacks can result in the loss of highly sensitive and confidential data. With Machine Learning, such attacks can be predicted and prevented by protecting the networks from unauthorized intrusions. Intrusion detection detects suspicious network activities before it compromises the availability, integrity, or confidentiality of the information. Intrusion detection is usually performed by classifying the network traffic as normal or intrusive. AI and Machine Learning are applied to increase the accuracy of this classification that helps in predicting and preventing any attacks. AI techniques are applied for simulated penetration testing where logical models of the network are used rather than the actual network.  

  • Transportation

An AI-powered transportation system is essential to transport weapons, food, troops, goods, and equipment in time and good condition. Machine Learning, Geospatial analysis, and their integration with the military’s logistical systems reduce human effort, minimize costs, reduce errors, and detect anomalies faster. 

  • Combat training

Training and preparing the army personnel for wars and attacks is essential. The military uses AI and Machine Learning powered Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) as they create effective simulations that are realistic, dynamic, and adaptive. The reinforcement learning technique enhances the combat training for virtual agents and human soldiers. 

  • Reconnaissance

Monitoring the threat is most important. Hence, intelligence and reconnaissance missions are essential. Drones, equipped with computer vision-enabled cameras, identify the borders and report potential threats if any.

The advancements in AI – in terms of transparency, interpretability, and explainability, enhance the crucial features of defense systems with its integrated computing and decision-making capabilities.

Qualetics, an on-demand Data Intelligence as a Service (DIaaS) platform, can help you quickly and cost-effectively build AI capabilities to enhance defense products, systems, and processes. Book a Demo with Qualetics, that leverages advanced analytics and AI to offer top-level and micro-level insights.