Luca Leone’s Post

The much ballyhooed reforms of the ITAR arms export system for AUKUS are not likely to help development of advanced weapons for Pillar II, the cluster of capabilities such as hypersonics, autonomy, AI and other advanced weapons, according to a new report from the Australian-based US Studies Centre. The report, “AUKUS Enablers? Assessing defense export control reforms in Australia and the United States”, cautiously concludes that at the top-level, the “AUKUS-driven reforms may succeed where previous efforts failed, realizing a long-standing objective of creating a ‘defense free-trade zone’ between Australia and the United States.” And yet, the authors — Bill Greenwalt of the American Enterprise Institute, and Tom Corben of the US Studies Centre — warn that there are major hurdles that have not been addressed by recent reform efforts, and which need to be handled if AUKUS is to reach its full potential.

Three Australian companies have signed contracts worth a total of $6.6 million to develop and produce 100 drones for Defence as part of an innovation challenge. The contracts are the latest stage of the Sovereign Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) Challenge being managed by Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA). AMSL Aero, Boresight and Grabba Technologies were each selected following a ‘fly-off’ demonstration of their technology in April.

The Green Flag Ventures Capital Fund of American entrepreneur Justin Ziff and his business partner Deborah Fairlamb, specializing in investment into Ukrainian defense startups, announced an investment in Karadag Technologies, a Ukrainian anti-UAV and electronic warfare systems developer. Karadag addresses one of the most pressing challenges in modern warfare: the threat posed by unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Their flagship products detect, track, jam, and neutralize enemy drones with unparalleled precision. This investment will allow Karadag to meet existing demand and satisfy a growing international market. Details of the deal were not disclosed. The global counter-UAV market is forecast to exceed $10.5B by 2030, and Karadag is well-positioned to meet both current and future demand. “Collaboration with Green Flag Ventures is a key moment for Karadag. It allows us to scale our operations, improve our technology, and expand our influence in both the military and civilian sectors – all over the world,” the company said. One of Karadag’s products is the Obriy drone detector, which notifies users of a drone’s approach from 2.5 to 4 kilometers away.

The United States Department of Defense announced it has allocated $20 million to Electra Battery Materials Corporation – a young but growing provider of sustainable raw materials for North America’s EV industry. Through the investment, Electra will finish its refinery plant in Ontario, Canada, to begin cobalt production to support a localized supply chain for US automakers. Canada is quickly becoming a mecca for EV raw materials and a potential savior to North America’s supply chain goals as the US looks to incentivize OEMs to localize production through measures established in the Inflation Reduction Act under the Biden Administration. Shortly after the IRA was signed in 2022, German automakers Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz sealed agreements with the Canadian government to acquire raw materials for EV battery manufacturing at their US facilities. GM’s BrightDrop also moved electric van production up North.

Rupert Younger, Director of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation and chair of the Enacting Purpose Initiative "While the potential benefits of an AI COO are immense, there are of course challenges that must be addressed. Trust and acceptance from employees, shareholders and customers would be crucial. There would be a significant amount of initial scepticism to any such appointment that the (human-dominated) board of directors would need to address if they appointed an AI COO — particularly when it comes to decisions on jobs and the transparency of operational decision-making. But an AI COO should become a reality in one of our largest corporations in the near future." https://lnkd.in/ezP6CmaF

Booming demand for artificial intelligence is encouraging Big Tech companies and their suppliers to explore converting old power stations and industrial sites into data centres. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are pouring billions of dollars into building data centres to power cloud computing and AI services, but it has become increasingly challenging to find suitable locations with sufficient power for the energy-hungry facilities. Many data centre markets are “heavily constrained when it comes to land availability and power”, which in turn fuelled interest in smaller markets and “more complicated sites” such as old power stations, said Adam Cookson, head of land transactions for real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA data centre advisory group.

Human-machine teams are considered by many, including the Australian Defence Force, to be central to future warfighting. The way Lavender’s tactical targeting drove military strategy suggests that the AI machine part should be designed to work with humans on the task they are undertaking, not be treated as a part able to be quickly switched between different functions. Otherwise, humans might lose sight of the strategic or operational context and instead focus on the machine-generated answers. For example, the purpose-designed Ukrainian GIS Arta system takes a bottom-up approach to target selection by giving people a well-fused picture of the battlespace, not a recommendation derived opaquely of what to attack. It’s described as ‘Uber for artillery’. Human users apply the context as they understand it to decide what is to be targeted. Ukraine offers further insights into the application of AI for knowing what is happening on the battlefield. Advanced digital technology has made the close and deep battlespace almost transparent. Strategy is now formed around finding enemy forces while fooling their surveillance systems to avoid being targeted. The result is that the frontline between the two forces, out to about 40km on either side, is now a very deadly zone through which neither side can break through to win.

In a groundbreaking development for the aviation industry, Istari Digital has announced its latest project, Flyer Øne, a revolutionary modification of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works X-56A. Set to become the world’s first digitally-certified aircraft, Flyer Øne represents a major leap forward in how aircraft are developed, tested, and certified. This ambitious endeavor not only showcases cutting-edge technology but also heralds a new era in aerospace innovation. Istari Digital is charting new territory by aiming to create and flight-certify a digital twin of the Flyer Øne aircraft before any physical prototype is built. This approach, which aligns the pace of aircraft development with the rapid evolution of software engineering, is poised to revolutionize the aviation industry.

The Department of the Navy has unveiled version 2 of its Information Superiority Vision (ISV 2.0), building on the department’s 2020 IT modernization vision by “refining the Navy’s data management.” The newly unveiled ISV 2.0 emphasizes a shift towards a data-centric organization with priorities on zero trust, cloud migration, and data analytics. “ISV 2.0 represents our continued commitment to securely move information from anywhere to anywhere to enable our warfighters to act at the speed of mission,” the Navy’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) stated in a LinkedIn post. A consistent focus across ISV 2.0 and its varying priorities is the importance of data, “ensuring it’s accessible, organized, and understandable for human users and automated systems throughout the Navy and Marine Corps.”