Air Force Pursues AI-Enabled “Collective Agility” in Warfare Attack Formations

By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

Air Force weapons developers appear to be intensely preparing for an age of AI-driven warfare and a need to establish an emerging kind of multi-domain “collective” connectivity, according to the service’s top General. This concept, as explained by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, seems to apply to both operational plans as well as weapons development given the rapid ascent of AI, computer automation and more secure forms of transport layer data networking across formations. 

Speaking at the London at the Royal Aeronautical Society, Allvin emphasized a growing need to develop warfare formations capable of addressing a new and fast-changing threat environment requiring what he called “collective agility.” 

In an operational context, he was clear in his remarks that the service needs coordinated, networked “formations” able to adjust quickly to new threat information. “Collective” agility, it seems clear, would reach operational efficiency through coordinated swarms, successful data sharing, an ability to collect and analyze data at forward points of collection using AI-driven analytics and computer automation to “transmit” data across the force and, when needed, adjust autonomously to new information. In this respect, collective agility would enable groups of manned and unmanned platforms of all sizes to coordinate operations across a wide, dispersed operational envelope of connected nodes. In a conceptual sense, this pertains directly to the implementation of the Air Forces long-developing, successful Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), an effort to streamline multi-domain networking and data processing across a wide array of air, ground and surface programs. ABMS, which has shown great promise in testing by aligning fast-emerging targeting detail with effectors or shooters across domains, can be understood in terms of the Air Force contribution to the now emerging DoD Joint All Domain Command and Control effort. In recent years, for example, the Air Force has performed successful “on-ramps” with ABMS wherein air-platforms were able to cue ground artillery enabling defensive cruise missile intercepts, among other things.

“Collective Agility” For War & Weapons

Allvin stressed that this kind of operational coordination must begin in the weapons development phase so that new technology are built with “common data standards” and an ability to, as he described it, “upgrade at the speed of coding.” This means platforms need to be built at their inception for rapid, continuous upgrades and the technical infrastructure to immediately accommodate software advances and other performance enhancing innovations. 

“We need to adapt industry and government to meet our own objectives, and our kit is at times not designed that way. This is an opportunity to think about how we do this and ‘bake it in rather than bolt it on’ so you can be ‘collectively agile’ and systems are talking to one another,” Allvin told the audience. 

This makes great sense, as keeping pace with technological change will enable the service to integrate new algorithms and software enhancements at the lightning speeds with which they arrive. New algorithms able to quickly improve performance are arriving so quickly, Allvins emphasis upon engineering the “coding” and “standards” into new platforms aligns with the need to enable high-speed improvements and modernization.