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according to u.s. air force generals, u.s. air force weapons developers are preparing intensively for the era of artificial intelligence-driven warfare and the need to establish an emerging multi-domain "collective" connection. u.s. air force chief of staff david allvin explained that this concept applies to both combat planning and weapons development because artificial intelligence, computer automation and more secure forms of cross-formation transport layer data networks are rapidly emerging.

in a speech at the royal aeronautical society in london, alvin emphasized that the u.s. air force increasingly needs to develop new combat formations and capabilities to cope with new and rapidly changing threat environments, which requires "collective agility."

in his speech, he made it clear that in terms of combat, troops need to quickly adjust and coordinate with each other based on new threat information to achieve networked "formations". obviously, "collective agility" will improve combat efficiency through collaborative combat groups, successful data sharing, and the ability to collect and analyze data at the forefront using artificial intelligence-driven analysis and computer automation, thereby transmitting data across the entire force and making autonomous adjustments based on new information when necessary. in this regard, "collective agility" will enable groups of manned and unmanned platforms of various sizes to coordinate actions across a wide, dispersed combat range.

conceptually, this is directly related to the implementation of the advanced battle management system (abms), which the u.s. air force has long developed and successfully implemented. abms has shown great power in testing by coordinating rapidly emerging target details with cross-domain combat platforms or weapons, and can be understood as the u.s. air force's contribution to the department of defense's joint all-domain command and control efforts. for example, in recent years, the u.s. air force has successfully achieved the launch of abms, in which air platforms can provide target indications to ground firepower and intercept cruise missiles.

alvin stressed that such operational coordination must start from the weapons development stage, so that the construction of new technologies adopts common data standards and has the ability to "upgrade at the speed of coding". this means that the platform should have the ability to upgrade quickly and continuously at the beginning, and establish relevant technical infrastructure to adapt to software advancements and other performance improvements as soon as possible.

alvin said that the current combat system toolkit is not designed for "rapid change and rapid adaptation", so the old model of the industry and users needs to be adjusted to adapt to new changes. at present, all parties are thinking about a question - how to "embed" the toolkit instead of "tethering" it to the system platform, so as to achieve "collective agility" and enable systems to communicate with each other.

this makes sense because keeping up with the pace of technological change will allow applications to incorporate new algorithms and enhance software capabilities at a “rapid pace.” faced with the “oncoming onslaught” of new algorithms that can quickly improve performance, alvin emphasized the inclusion of “coding” and “standards” engineering into new platforms, which is consistent with the need to achieve high-speed improvements and modernization.

this idea seems to coincide with the rapid integration of "collective ai," which is the process of performing analysis within a single system while collecting data and integrating otherwise disconnected collection points. for example, a networked, multi-domain ai infrastructure could perform a kind of "collective ai" where individual collection points perform ai in one location.

a single platform could use ai algorithms to compare incoming intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance (isr) data and sensor information against vast databases to determine operational relevance in milliseconds. the results or outcomes of efficient processing, target identification, and problem solving at a single or otherwise isolated forward point at the edge of battle could be collected and analyzed at a large set of nodes to perform the necessary multi-node ai analysis on a set of otherwise disconnected ai analysis points. this would enable large formations to have the kind of integrated collective combat capability that alvin envisioned.

like the services’ abms, alvin’s concept of “collective agility” is closely tied to the pentagon’s multi-service network initiative called jadc2, which is currently being implemented under the direction of deputy defense secretary kathleen hicks. alvin’s call for “collective agility” for the air force is also closely synchronized with the navy’s long-standing and evolving “ghost fleet” initiative, which aims to use autonomous and artificial intelligence nodes to coordinate the operations and data flows of unmanned systems.

for example, the “ghost fleet” envisioned and currently in operation by the navy enables a group of surface unmanned submarines to autonomously adjust their course in coordination with each other and respond to new information shared by a series of nodes at the same time. the concept of the “ghost fleet” is to achieve the kind of “collective agility” described by alvin, establishing a time-sensitive combat-related data network between a group of unmanned systems that can adjust their course and respond to new information. based on this idea of ​​“collective agility”, the concept of jadc2 is to carry out this information processing, efficient data analysis and response at the group level within each service, and expand it to all services to form a joint, collective multi-domain theater.