HEARD IT THROUGH THE PIPELINE
sprinkled on top to improve the output of the app itself (e.g., find the needle in the haystack in seconds or minutes not weeks, months or years).
Mark Kitz, program executive officer for IEW&S, said that enabling those same tools and systems with AI and ML capa- bilities is a game changer. “Today, our sensors collect far more data than human analysts can exploit and analyze manu- ally. AI and ML models can be trained to detect objects and alert analysts to possible targets in a way that can close the gap on the amount of data we process, and how commanders and decision-makers see the battlefield. Making sure we have the infra- structure and a pipeline to facilitate that delivery is a key component for mission success.”
IT’S ALL IN THE DELIVERY Te concept of Project Linchpin is just like software pipelines used on cellphones for operating systems and apps. User data is provided back to the software developer, which helps generate the next iteration of patches, security upgrades and features. Both the software pipeline and the AI and
ML pipeline require an infrastructure to enable that feedback and delivery—with a few key differences. Project Linchpin’s plan will establish this infrastructure and an environment that will allow successful deployment of AI and ML capabilities to intelligence, cyber and electronic warfare sensor systems, like high-altitude aerial platforms that capture imagery and other signals using an end-to-end pipeline. Te delivery of these AI and ML capabilities is critical as it supports the work intelli- gence analysts do and will lead to faster and more accurate decision-making.
“Tese sensors gather all the informa- tion used to understand the operational environment in all domains, including imagery, video and signals,” said Bharat Patel, product lead for Project Linchpin, part of Project Manager Intel Systems and Analytics (PM IS&A) within PEO IEW&S. “Te goal of the sensor AI pipe- line is to deliver trained algorithms [i.e., models] to sensors and sensor data-process- ing platforms.” For example, AI aboard future aerial sensors could assess battle damage to increase situational awareness of enemy forces and critical infrastructure
on the battlefield, and new intelligence ground stations could automatically correlate and detect targets to alert deci- sion-makers for more rapid targeting.
Col. Christopher Anderson, proj- ect manager for IS&A, said that there are dozens of examples to demonstrate the capability. “It would be like look- ing at Google Earth’s satellite imagery and quickly being able to identify all of the Ford F-350s in Maryland,” he said. “Normally an analyst has an area of inter- est assigned to them, and they have to look for a bunch of things; it could be enemy equipment, friendly forces, schools, etc. Te analyst zooms in, out, rotates imag- ery and stares at the screen for hours. With AI, systems can quickly [within seconds] help Soldiers identify objects of interest that can be turned into intelligence for faster decisions and give Soldiers those hours back to work on more important tasks and analysis.”
Project Linchpin, denoting the name of the pin that keeps a wheel on its axle, orga- nizes all the components needed to deliver these leap-ahead AI and ML capabilities to
ACQUISITION STRATEGY
Product lead for Project Linchpin Bharat Patel, second from right, goes over acquisition strategy with PEO IEW&S headquarters staff Oct. 11 for the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington. Staff accompanying Patel are, from left, Mardel Wojciechowski, division chief, Contract Planning; Steven Rothenberg, contract planning; Mike Schwartz, chief engineer and System of Systems Engineering Division chief; and Steve Gunther, division chief, Program Acquisition and Cost Efficiencies. (Photo provided by PEO IEW&S)
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Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2023
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