Pentagon grapples with growth of artificial intelligence. (Graphic by Breaking Defense, original brain graphic via Getty)
The future of warfare will be driven by information, and much of that future is here today. Department of Defense leaders and advisors recognize this and emphasize that data must be treated as essential to every part of the department’s operations, from finances to the battlefield.
In fact, the department’s homegrown collection of data-analytics tools has proved so useful it is expanding and modernizing to upgrade its technical architecture so it can scale to meet the growing demand.
That system — Advancing Analytics, or Advana — was envisioned to eventually become a fully integrated, single source of truth for financial, personnel, readiness, logistics, and contract information. It has evolved from a small team of data and analytics defense comptroller professionals focused on the audit, to a platform for analytics of all types. It has grown to over 100,000 users serving every service, the combatant commands (COCOMs) and the office of the Secretary of Defense.
Advana is unquestionably a success story. The trick now is to make sure everyone in the Department is aware of its potential and how to use it to the greatest advantage.
Everything within defense operations — from the journey toward a clean full financial statement audit to uninterrupted command and control, to accurate planning and targeting — relies on the ability to collect, integrate, move and use data. However, the power of data, and the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in leveraging that power, can be nebulous without examples to understand the potential applications.
Because it is sometimes clearer to illustrate than to just tell, here are three ways that the COCOMs — those closest to the fight — are putting Advana to use.
First, digital readiness assessments evaluate the level of preparedness to use data to drive planning and decision making. As part of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office data strategy, operational data teams help COCOMs measure their digital readiness by looking at a combination of technology, talent, culture, and data systems — to include data refresh rates — which the command then uses to improve planning and decision-making and essentially conduct data driven preparation before a crises.
Second, campaign planning is a primary function of a COCOM headquarters. The more comprehensive, timely, reliable and accessible information is, the more realistic those plans — and the operational outcomes they are designed to produce — will be. Through use of Advana applications, global force management planners are able to assess the feasibility of a plan. Logisticians, meanwhile, can use it to determine resource requirements and sustainability of an operation and the impacts on the global transportation network. Data teams are developing customized products in order to answer specific questions from commanders in real time.
Third, as more data on weapons capabilities and battlefield dynamics are captured in data analytic systems like Advana, the COCOMs are also improving their predictive analytics to develop models that show a commander how long it will take to move people and equipment into and around the battlefield, and what routes are best. These systems track the quantity and types of assets commanders will need to move people and equipment, basing them for responsiveness, survivability and even for more rapid, agile noncombatant evacuation operations. A critical capabilities assessment tool resident in Advana provides operational status, risk characterizations and mitigation options to elevate visibility of all these crucial factors for leadership planning, exercises and operational decisions. For example, a team working with INDOPACOM developed a tool to improve a manual process that tracked critical assets required to deliver scarce, high-demand capabilities into the area.
Advana-enabled tools come together to help a commander determine what forces are needed, making data that used to take weeks to gather available in hours. This information informs ongoing debates within the department about force assignment and allocation recommendations to the Secretary of Defense which is a constant competition and friction point as the nation confronts challenges in the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East and must make decisions about where to put its limited number of forces as events change.
In carrying out the nation’s strategic national security priorities, DoD has many responsibilities to be in the right place and the right time, with the right capabilities to deter, and if necessary, defeat adversaries while seamlessly communicating and collaborating with allies and partners. It must be able to harness all its resources to do this.
Aggressive expansion and employment of Advana and clear communication of its power and potential, along with fully unleashing the innovative power of the workforce to use it, will transform the Department into the data-centric organization it needs to be to conduct modern business operations, produce predictive and responsive operational planning and achieve battlefield dominance.
Elaine McCusker is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She is a former acting undersecretary of defense (comptroller).
