Technology in the Defence Department

Technology in the Defence Department

            Military services are faced by insecurities and autonomous cars are the solution. The military service requires machines that do not require active personal involvement and the fact that autonomous cars do not require personal involvement are a real deal. [1]Autonomous cars are more affordable and attainable due to technological advancement in energy, navigation, and communication. The autonomous car gives an option to choose whether to assign a driver and the worries of commanders are significantly reduced by the fact that the only concern is offering protection to the leaders of the convoy. A convoy of autonomous cars is comprised of a fleet of self-driven vehicles led by a person-driven car. The idea of autonomous vehicles comes with a promise of increasing speed, accuracy and intelligence of logistic delivery. In the area of protection, autonomous cars reduce the number of soldiers and contract drivers put in harm’s way. The workforce spared ensures availability when urgently required.  The autonomous cars will be potentially faster, carrying more payload and into more dangerous areas in support of army logistics. The idea of incorporating autonomous cars faces many challenges including resistance. The fact that autonomous vehicles come with a risk of doing away the employment of many drivers poses a threat of facing opposition. However, the weight of the advantages of autonomous cars shows that the military greatly needs cars.

Another technology similar to autonomous cars is the robotics technology.[2]Using human workforce involves time wastage in unnecessary movements in the workplace. The benefits of robotics are not only saving on labor but also reducing the cost of providing employer compensation and safety issues in a facility. The effectiveness of machine robotics has been improved by advanced technology. Also, the robotic technology at least four types of machine-driven cars. The military needs four kinds of cars in different ways. The goods-to-person picking robots can be used to reduce soldier movements during picking of items. The robots, for example, can be used to pick used to replace soldiers, movements to dangerous territories, or to exchange weapons through dangerous areas. The self-picking forklifts can be efficient in loading military vehicles faster and more safely. Time is very important in the defence service. Most operations are made successful by learning the art of time maintenance and accuracy keeping. Timekeeping and ensuring accuracy is a difficult combination especially when human labor is at play. Employing machine technology is a major boost, and the defence service greatly needs machine technology. Weapon stores require thorough checks and up-to-date records showing the number of weapons in the stores. The inventory checking and counting exercise is not a simple one and requires extensive labor. To save on labor costs and time spend when human labor is employed, the defence department needs to use autonomous inventory robots. The autonomous inventory has a potential contacting inventory count at intervals of two hours in situations when human labor would take two months. In times of war, aerial surveys are a risk attempt. The defence needs unmanned aerial vehicles to reduce the number of soldiers exposed to harm’s way during aerial surveys and mapping activities.

Blockchain technology is another area of interest by the defence department. One of the most severe challenges facing military forces is the high cost of securing contracts. Also, the lack of enough workforce is an issue of great concern and measures to mitigate the problems are critical to the department. Use of manpower in the supply chain department is faced with issues of loss, waste, and fraud, which makes the use of blockchain technology a better option. The defence department needs to ensure transparency in the spending patterns and military operations involving the use of resources. Relying on civilians’ and politicians’ oversight only can be ineffective, and thus blockchain technology comes in. [3]The shipment for unaccounted for, weapons poses a great risk of making weapons land into the wrong hands, possibly of enemies, and the defence department would not allow such. Also, the communications department of the defence requires serious privacy maintenance, especially for email communications. Blockchain encryption techniques are very efficient in offering such privacy, and thus the defence department is an interested group. Encryption is critical in that, cyber-crimes, cannot be easily specified as purely for profit gain, or as acts of war. An enemy will have a serious advantage over the military forces if information on the military operations is easily accessible and such the blockchain technology cannot be avoided. Blockchain technology is efficient in improving 3-D printing. The importance of 3-D technology is that manufacturing is more efficient using technology. The defence department has to be efficient in manufacturing since the technological advancement of the enemies requires inventions, which can be aided greatly by blockchain technology. The fact that military threats and offensive campaigns have become digital leaves the defence department with no option other than embracing blockchain technology, or else enemies will always win battles.

Days are gone when military forces would go on direct combats on enemy territories, and artificial intelligence is taking in. [4]Artificial intelligence is currently being integrated into almost every military application. The first application of artificial intelligence is warfare platforms. Artificial intelligence reduces the need for human input as well as regular maintenance. High-speed weapons can be empowered by artificial intelligence to contact collaborative attacks. Cybersecurity is another field of application for artificial intelligence. The military department faces vulnerability in terms of cyber threats. Therefore, the interest in artificial intelligence is not odd for the defence department. [5]The inability to employ artificial intelligence in the current situation of technology can only be compared to military immaturity. Military logistics like transportation of ammunition need the input of artificial intelligence for security reasons. Also, the efficiency of spotting and aiming at targets in warfare combats is greatly improved by artificial intelligence. The interest of the defence department still extends to battlefield health and combat simulation. Threat monitoring and surveillance require artificial intelligence. The military department deals with extensive data and employing artificial intelligence could be a breakthrough.

[1] Uriel Epshtein and Charles Faint . (2019). THAT’S LOGISTICS: THE AUTONOMOUS FUTURE OF THE ARMY’S BATTLEFIELD SUPPLY CHAIN.

[2] Guillot, C. (2018). 4 types of autonomous mobile robots, and their warehouse use cases.

[3] Mire, S. (2018). Blockchain For Military Defence: 7 Possible Use Cases.

[4] Gulhane, T. S. (2018). 8 Key Military Applications for Artificial Intelligence in 2018.

[5] Helbing, D. F. (2019). Will democracy survive big data and artificial intelligence?. In Towards Digital Enlightenment. Springer, Cham. (pp. 73-98).