{"id":1652504,"date":"2022-09-22T06:53:21","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1652504"},"modified":"2022-09-22T06:53:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:53:28","slug":"u-s-developing-ai-to-predict-ammo-and-weapons-needs-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-developing-ai-to-predict-ammo-and-weapons-needs-of-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Developing AI to Predict Ammo and Weapons Needs of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-developing-ai-to-predict-ammo-and-weapons-needs-of-ukraine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1652504&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><strong>FRANKFURT, Germany\u2014<\/strong>In\u00a0a\u00a0large office building amid closely-cut grass, one of the U.S. military&#8217;s top data minds is developing machine-learning algorithms to predict Ukraine\u2019s ammo and repair needs, rather than just react to them. But an older problem persists, according to the Defense Department\u2019s inspector general: the Pentagon isn\u2019t doing enough to keep track of what\u2019s going where.<\/p>\n<p>This is the joint operations center of the International Donor Coordination Center, or IDCC, where officials from the U.S., Britain, Ukraine, and a dozen\u00a0other countries\u00a0track the transfer of donated weapons and supplies, right down to individual bullets, IDCC officials told reporters this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The process begins with a request from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for, say, armored vehicles or bullets. IDCC officials check to see if there\u2019s a donor country or entity that has the item. The coalition officials then design a process to get that materiel to Ukrainians, who then take it over the border. Along the way, the coalition officials document what was requested, what was donated, and what was received.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The requests also allow the IDCC to calculate and track how quickly the Ukrainians are using up materiel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnderstanding their usage rates is important to understand how quickly they need to be replaced,\u201d one coalition official told reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The IDCC also works security issues, such as when an arms shipment from Macedonia was picked up on social media. Officials adjusted the timing of the shipment to avoid drawing public attention. They said that while some of the shipments were very conspicuous at first\u2014think armored vehicles on flatbed trucks\u2014the shipments have since become much harder for the outside world to detect. IDCC officials have figured out ways to ship items without flight numbers or other tracking indicators that might tip off Russian intelligence trying to intercept or destroy the aid in transit.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-articles-placeholder\">\n<div class=\"related-articles\">\n<p class=\"related-articles-head\">Related articles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The requests from the Ukrainians for more supplies are both constant and urgent, according to the officials. That\u2019s partially why the next step is take the large amounts of data that the coalition is collecting and develop AI-driven techniques to anticipate those needs ahead of time, rather than just respond as they come in, said Jared Summers, the chief technology officer of the 18th Airborne Corps, who is working with the IDCC in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the sort of thing big companies like Amazon do to ensure they can meet demand. But large retail outfits have a few advantages that the IDCC does not. They can add sensors to shipments to get a complete data picture. Summers said the IDCC is planning to work around this shortfall by developing predictive models from existing data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can start to see failure rates and break-down rates once we get enough of that data in. And we can actually build that model without having to invest in sensors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing when an item might break is key to knowing when to ask for a replacement. He said the models to predict Ukrainian needs were \u201cin development\u201d and expressed cautious optimism that they would be in place by year\u2019s end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That sort of predictability could make a vital difference to Ukraine and its allies as they seek to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/policy\/2022\/09\/ukraines-supporters-aim-create-long-term-aid-mechanisms\/376846\/\">make sure t<\/a>hat Ukraine can continue to accept aid and fight through next year and beyond. It might also help to satisfy some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kennedy.senate.gov\/public\/2022\/5\/kennedy-introduces-bill-to-establish-special-ig-to-oversee-use-of-american-taxpayer-aid-to-ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">concerns <\/a>from lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/policy\/2022\/09\/conservative-groups-urging-lawmakers-vote-no-more-ukraine-aid\/376954\/\">and others<\/a> on accountability for the aid that\u2019s been given and asked for.<\/p>\n<p>But there are some big differences between how the IDCC tracks and keeps data for its operations and how the Defense Department Inspector General would prefer it to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In July, the DOD Inspector General\u2019s office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govexec.com\/oversight\/2022\/07\/defense-department-record-keeping-practices-hurting-oversight-ukraine-aid-inspector-general-warns\/374146\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> the Pentagon wasn\u2019t using the <a href=\"https:\/\/governmenttechnologyinsider.com\/meet-advana-how-the-department-of-defense-solved-its-data-interoperability-challenges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">year-old analytics hub<\/a> that\u2019s supposed to simplify the gathering and sharing of data. Instead, the Defense Department was using journal vouchers. \u201cThe use of summary journal vouchers is a concern because journal vouchers have the potential to limit the transparency of the funds, particularly if the summary journal vouchers do not trace back to the supporting transactions details,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the IG office issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oversight.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/oig-reports\/DoD\/DODIG-2022-133.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new report<\/a>, reminding the Defense Department to follow its own rules on accounting procedures, and cites a March DOD memo that \u201cstates that Advana will be the authoritative and only source for reporting the Ukraine supplemental funds and that DoD Components are required to update Advana weekly with their execution of direct funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new report noted that the Office of the Secretary of Defense has \u201cmade improvements to the functionality of <a href=\"https:\/\/governmenttechnologyinsider.com\/meet-advana-how-the-department-of-defense-solved-its-data-interoperability-challenges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advana<\/a> to increase the traceability, transparency, and reporting of Ukraine supplemental funds execution.\u201d But the analytics hub still wasn\u2019t being used widely or consistently enough. The result is that parts of the Defense Department are working with different numbers on what sort of aid has been allocated, used, and so on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Summers said \u201cAdvana is an important piece of the overall required ecosystem to support data centric operations,\u201d said Summers. \u201cAlso, when you deal with tactical data links, which we do\u2026 that\u2019s also near real time and driving additional technological requirements to deliver at the speed necessary to achieve decision dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coalition needs to use all that data it has as quickly as it can get it, rather than run it through some analytics platform before they can see and execute on requests.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe preference is to be able to take that information directly from the source to go and drive our decision making in our processing instead of taking it out of the system to somewhere else to work something else to then have it fed to us,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Summers said he\u2019s currently working on it with Craig Martell, the Pentagon\u2019s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer. \u201cWe talk with his team, many multiple times a week, if not on a daily basis on a variety of topics,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FRANKFURT, Germany\u2014In\u00a0a\u00a0large office building amid closely-cut grass, one of the U.S. military&#8217;s top data minds is developing machine-learning algorithms to predict Ukraine\u2019s ammo and repair needs, rather than just react<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1652506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1652504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1652504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1652506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1652504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1652504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1652504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}