Northrop Grumman is developing new technology to allow intelligence systems to learn patterns and predict, rather than detect, threats, said Patrick Antkowiak, vice president of the company’s advanced concepts and technologies division. “Some of the best chess players in the world now are computers. What’s going on there is that this idea of machine learning,” or enabling a computer to predict an opponent’s move with greater accuracy based on past data, explained Antkowiak in a briefing Wednesday in Washington D.C. “Think of what happens when we combine that ability with our sensing technology” on battlefield surveillance platforms such as JSTARS or Global Hawk, he added. “We get sensor architectures that can learn…and don’t just forensically give us a view of where we’ve been, but start to predict where we need to be,” noted Antkowiak. “We go from response, to anticipatory sort of systems.” Though the concept is still in the research and development stage, it could theoretically be retrofitted to many existing systems, he said.
The Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.