By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Unprecedented computer processing speed, AI-enabled analysis and multiple kinds of problem solving and data transmission happening in milliseconds … has now taken yet another paradigm-changing turn into the quadrillions. New Air Force Research Laboratory Supercomputers can now perform quadrillions of “operations” per second, and even further breakthroughs are on the immediate horizon.
A recently emerging Air Force supercomputer called the TI-21 “Raider” can perform 12petaFLOPS, or Floating Points Per Second. Floating Operations Per Second, FLOPS, are computing measurements intended to assess the number of arithmetic calculations a computer can perform per second, and “floating points” are units of measurement used to calculate and cite extremely long numbers, according to Techtarget.com. For comparative purposes and context, the Raider’s 12petaFLOPS per second is four-times the speed of the service’s existing supercomputer called Thunder, which performs 3.1petaFLOPS per second. ( 3,126,240,000,000,000 floating point operations, per second, according to the AFRL).
The Raider is therefore a huge “speed” and volume jump from the Thunder, which emerged in 2015, yet the AFRL is also preparing to unveil yet another generation of computing as soon as next year. An interesting AFRL essay says two-more improved supercomputers will emerge as soon as 2024.
“The next two systems to be installed are the TI-23 Flyer and TI-23 Raven, which are expected to calculate 14 petaFLOPS of computational capability. The Flyer and Raven will support the unclassified and classified systems, respectively,” the AFRL essay states.
The AFRL program, which is stored at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, supports all the military services as part of DoD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program.
The merits of this kind of computing are perhaps far too expansive to explain, yet high speed computation, information processing and advanced problem solving cannot be underestimated in terms of its combat relevance and operational impact. Part of the challenge of course, with supercomputers, can be the hardware footprint, meaning they require a lot of space and actual computers. However, as both AI and “cloud-enabled” systems, the supercomputers can operate as an integrative “hub” for otherwise disparate pools of data or information networks. Its size and speed can enable otherwise incompatible or “segregated” databases to integrate with one another, often using interfaces and common protocol standards. Naturally information volume, computation and analysis are of critical significance in a computing breakthrough of this kind, yet a principle advantage can simply be described in terms of pure “speed.”
In the AFRL essay, for example, Kelly Dalton, technical director at AFRL’s DOD Supercomputer Resource Center, or DSRC, said the Raider has the potential to take that five-year project timeline and turn it into about 200 days.
Therefore, these breakthrough speeds align with and advance the Air Force’s push to accelerate sensor-to-shooter timelines and attack at the “speed of relevance.” The ability to scale data, and bounce a specified amount of information relevant to a particular task against a seemingly limitless database provides forward “nodes” with the requisite pools of information they need to access. In this respect, a supercomputer can enable centralized command and control, standardization and data storage with “de-centralized” implementation or operational functionality.
Cloud enables decentralized operations, while ensuring a common, standardized and accessible database across various points of entry. Supercomputing can also support advanced applications of AI which might seek to operate in a “collective” fashion performing analysis on otherwise separated AI-systems to analyze them in relation to one another and look for synergies across domains, transport layers and databases.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – the Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
