Author Topic: Military Science, Military Issues, and the Nature of War  (Read 361175 times)

Crafty_Dog

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WSJ: Uke Software Brigades
« Reply #1150 on: March 09, 2023, 05:25:17 PM »
Ukraine’s Software Warrior Brigade
They are bringing tech innovation to the battlefield faster and more effectively than Russia is.

By Shyam Sankar
March 8, 2023 6:00 pm ET

image A Ukrainian serviceman flies a drone near Bakhmut, Ukraine, March 3.PHOTO: EVGENIY MALOLETKA/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Ukraine is learning what happens when you conscript 300,000 of the world’s most capable software engineers, product managers and technologists and send them into battle.

The story usually goes something like this: An employee of a small information-technology outsourcing company becomes a unit commander on the frontlines. He sends his battle-born ideas back to his former colleagues in the tech-company lab. They rapidly build prototypes to show to Defense Ministry officials responsible for military technology procurement. The government then buys these prototypes and asks for more.

It’s a virtuous circle of innovation and entrepreneurship that has led to a proliferation of startups in Ukraine, including dozens of drone companies since the beginning of the war. Among other things, Ukraine’s wartime tech community has developed 3D-printed fins that can attach to Soviet-era grenades to maximize accuracy when dropped from greater heights. This innovation has turned consumer drones into remote bombers with a payload of up to six grenades that can deliver precision strikes on Russian lines.



In February, I traveled to Ukraine to see firsthand how defense and intelligence agencies are using technology. I also wanted to get a sense of what we could be doing to help Ukrainian forces increase their situational awareness on the battlefield.

What I saw was that Ukrainian conscripts are connoisseurs of software. They have a visceral knowledge of how it is built. Crucially, they have the vocabulary to provide feedback that can help developers improve the product. Their knowledge and experience has laid the foundation for collaboration among allied international software developers looking to help.

In other circumstances, I’d be trying to hire them as engineers.

So many of the most common defense-tech problems I’ve seen over the past 15 years—including the difficulty of adopting and rapidly deploying new technologies to the field—have melted away in Ukraine during this war. The urgency is simply overwhelming.

Militaries generally don’t understand software. They have a process, a mental mode and a funding model to buy tanks, weapons and other hardware. Software is largely considered an afterthought, or a piece of the hardware itself. This is changing in the U.S. but remains a challenge for every Western country.

In Ukraine, the military became discerning consumers of software practically overnight. Perhaps more important, they became discerning consumers of software talent. Highly technical Ukrainian war fighters are able to identify and work with world-class software engineers, allowing them to rush advanced technological solutions to the battlefield. Ukraine’s 300,000 computer-science conscripts are quick to try new things, challenge sacred programs that aren’t delivering, and fund multiple competing efforts. They understand that software requires constant innovation, iteration and updates. You don’t just set it and forget it.

Even though it would be easy for Kyiv to bestow special monopoly status on a handful of programs during wartime, Ukrainian officials continue to see value in funding multiple overlapping efforts. They are willing to trade bureaucratic orderliness for increased innovation, lethality and capability on the battlefield.

As American venture capitalist Ben Horowitz pointed out in a famous 2011 essay, there is a difference between a wartime CEO and a peacetime CEO. Each takes a different view on what is necessary for success. There’s an analogous difference between a peacetime defense program and a wartime defense program. The peacetime view is that you invest in military innovation before war begins and be ready to fight with the technology your investment produces. You fight with the hardware you have. The wartime view is that you get the software you need for the fight you find yourself in.

Ukraine is showing the world how the wartime view can produce the software necessary to win the fight. After Ukraine wins, there will be 300,000 war heroes who happen to be computer scientists. They will be as comfortable wielding Javelins as Jupyter notebooks. I can’t wait to see what they build.

Slava Ukraini.

Mr. Sankar is Palantir’s chief technology officer.

Crafty_Dog

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Biden's Budget
« Reply #1151 on: March 10, 2023, 11:08:11 AM »
About That ‘Record’ Defense Budget
Biden’s 3.2% increase is a cut in real terms despite rising threats.
By The Editorial BoardFollow
March 9, 2023 6:42 pm ET



The White House is touting President Biden’s U.S. military budget for fiscal 2024 as a record, and Mr. Biden is betting busy Americans won’t look past the headlines. The truth is that he’s asking for a real defense cut, even as the U.S. is waking up late to a world of new threats.


The Pentagon’s budget request may seem large at $842 billion. But the figure is only a 3.2% increase over last year, and with inflation at 6% it means a decline in buying power. Compare the 3.2% growth with the double-digit increases for domestic accounts: 19% for the Environmental Protection Agency; 13.6% for both the Education and Energy Departments; 11.5% for Health and Human Services.

For all the talk about a bloated Pentagon, defense in 2022 was only about 13% of the federal budget. It’s about 3% of GDP, down from 5% to 6% during the Cold War, even though America’s challenges today are arguably more numerous and acute.

China is building a world-class military to drive America out of the Pacific. Russia is committed to grinding down Ukraine and then moving its military to the Polish border; Iran may soon have a nuclear bomb; North Korea is lobbing missiles toward Japan. Hypersonics and missiles threaten the U.S. homeland.

The Pentagon isn’t releasing the finer points of the budget until Monday, but a hefty portion of any increase will be absorbed by a 5.2% pay increase for troops and civilians, needed in part to offset Mr. Biden’s inflationary policies. The White House includes bromides about America’s “long-term commitment to the Indo-Pacific” and highlights $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.

But Pacific deterrence depends on a U.S. Navy large enough to discourage bad behavior, and the goal of a 355-ship service remains a fantasy. The document promises “executable and responsible” investments in the fleet, which is a euphemism for cutting ships without adequate replacements.

The budget commits to “ongoing nuclear modernization,” but recapitalizing all three parts of the triad is a generational challenge that is straining budgets. The document nods at expanding “the production capacity of the industrial base to ensure the Army can meet strategic demands for critical munitions,” and Congress last year authorized multiyear contracts that should help. But the U.S. still isn’t procuring its best precision weapons in sufficient quantities to last more than a few weeks in a fight for Taiwan.

Mr. Biden’s largest failure is promising his budget will keep “America safe,” instead of leveling with the public about the threats and what will be required to meet them. The reality is that U.S. military power is “slowly sinking,” as a Navy admiral put it last year, and Congress will have to start plugging the hole.


ccp

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us space laser test
« Reply #1153 on: March 16, 2023, 08:39:33 AM »

G M

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Re: us space laser test
« Reply #1154 on: March 16, 2023, 09:17:48 AM »
https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2023/03/naval-research-lab-launches-first-space-laser-energy-experiment/384024/

I hate to be so cynical but China will be testing theirs next week

The fact that it looks just like ours is pure coincidence, you Sinophobe!

ccp

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Re: Military Science, Military Issues, and the Nature of War
« Reply #1155 on: March 16, 2023, 09:20:18 AM »
it will look just like ours
but a small fraction of the cost since they don't have to pay much for research
only bribes to their operatives

which they deduct under cost of doing business.  :-P

G M

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Re: Military Science, Military Issues, and the Nature of War
« Reply #1156 on: March 16, 2023, 09:23:01 AM »
it will look just like ours
but a small fraction of the cost since they don't have to pay much for research
only bribes to their operatives

which they deduct under cost of doing business.  :-P

Well, they double billed us for Fauci’s bio weapon production at Wuhan.






ccp

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G M

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Crafty_Dog

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