EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq this afternoon closed the Agency’s 2019 Annual Conference which was devoted to debating the current state of implementation and the future prospects of the new EU defence initiatives. Before that, NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment, Camille Grand, had underlined in his speech the strong relationship, cooperation and complementarity between NATO and the EU, two organisations which are "two sides of the same coin".
Although it is premature to declare today that the new EU defence cooperation tools (CARD, PESCO, EDF) will deliver on all their promises, they definitely have the potential to be very successful and lead, over time, to a more structured joint European defence planning framework that will enable systematic cooperation, from investment and capability development to the joint operational use of those capabilities, Mr Domecq said in his concluding remarks. However, everything will depend on how efficiently and coherently they are implemented, and to what extent Member States will actually use and embed these tools into their national defence thinking and planning, the EDA Chief Executive stressed, reflecting a general assessment expressed throughout the conference.
Main takeaways
Mr Domecq singled out a number of commonalities expressed during the conference which could serve as the main takeaways of today's event, such as:
Lively and interactive panel discussions
Throughout the day, between the various keynote speeches (see other related webnews on the opening speeches and the ministerial debate), conference attendees also enjoyed two lively, interactive and highly interesting panel debates, each of them focusing on a specific aspect of European defence.
Moderated by EUISS Director Dr Gustav Lindstrom, the first panel entitled 'CARD, PESCO, EDF: taking stock and looking ahead' featured Admiral Rob Bauer (Dutch Chief of Defence), Dirk Hoke (CEO of Airbus Defence & Space), Herald Ruijters (Director at the European Commission's DG MOVE), Esa Pulkkinen (Director General of the EU Military Staff) as well as Benedikt Zimmer (German State Secretary for Defence Procurement). The panelist focused on the need to ensure a smooth and hands-on implementation of the new EU defence cooperation tools, and to always keep in mind the armed forces' real capability needs and priorities. The key driver of all cooperation must be the capability requirements and needs of our forces, and nothing else, said Mr Zimmer. He also called for "proper and fair partnerships" between the European defence industries and countries to unleash the full potential of defence cooperation. In this respect, Dirk Hoke (Airbus) raised the importance of solving the sensitive issue of intellectual property rights. "As long this question is not solved, we will see duplication" in the development of capabilities, he said. The current fragmentation of Europe' capability landscape is not sustainable, stressed Admiral Bauer. Capabilities, such as for example military helicopters, can be produced by different industries in different countries "but please build just one type of them, not 28", he said.
The second panel, moderated by EDA's Industry, Synergies & Enablers Director, Emilio Fajardo, discussed the 'Technological and industrial dimension of the EU's new level of ambition on defence'. It featured Thierry Carlier (Director International Development, Direction Générale de l'Armement), Éric Béranger (CEO of MBDA), Steven Blockmans (Head of the EU Foreign Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies CEPS), Micael Johansson (President/CEO of SAAB Group) Paula Queipo Rodriguez (Director of Business Operations, IDONIAL Centro Tecnológico), Dr Margriet Drent (Senior Research Fellow at Clingendael). A strong focus was put on Europe's so-called Key Strategic Activities (skills, technologies, manufacturing capabilities) which should be safeguarded to maintain and increase Member States armed forces' freedom of action and allow the EU to move towards strategic autonomy.
EDA today announced the winner of the 2019 EDA Defence Innovation Prize which, this year, rewards the most innovative idea or application for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in defence. The trophy goes to epic.blue, a young Belgian company specialised in Location Intelligence Systems, for their idea to use AI-driven tactical decision aids to provide commanders of military operations with accurate and seamless positioning data of teams in GNSS-denied environments. The Prize was handed over by EDA Deputy Chief Executive Olli Ruutu at a ceremony in the margins of the Agency’s Annual Conference today in Brussels.
The availability, in all circumstances, of precise, reliable and constantly updated data on the current operational status and environment of an operation is crucial and helps military commanders to speed up and improve their decision-making. The benefits for military operations using new AI-based location intelligence tools are increased situational awareness, safety and operational effectiveness.
The starting point for the winning idea was the fact that commanders are more and more overwhelmed by a deluge of information, driven by the continuous rise of available sensor data and the increased inter-connectivity of deployed systems. By contrast, a long-standing information gap still exists: accurate positioning of teams in GNSS-denied environments. The solution proposed in the winning project is thus to create a range of AI tactical decision aids (TDA) which, together with humans in the loop, can considerably augment commanders’ thought processes and speed of decision-making, thanks to accurate and seamless positioning of their troops, even in GNSS-denied environments.
The proposed AI decision aids would use 4D data generated and collected during trainings and operations: movement of forces, time and location of hostile encounters, theoretical planning and movement, etc.. All that 4D data captured by the system is stored with timestamp and location to create a storyboard for post-mission analysis. Using this data, AI can then be made to learn which are normal movement and timing patterns of safe operations. This creates an understanding of the normal situation, without needing a lot of human intervention. If the AI detects deviations of the norm, alerts are raised and alternate courses of action can be proposed. Prediction capacities could also be included in the future. The resulting capability would be an AI-driven tool which can observe current operations and propose alternatives as required by the operational circumstances.
"We are very pleased to receive EDA’s Defence Innovation Prize. epic.blue’s mission is to ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of field teams. This recognition enables us to further carry our mission into the security domain and create strong partnerships", stated the company’s CEO, Michael Ilsbroux.
epic.blue is a leading technology company providing COTS software for high-performance and highly accurate location intelligence in business critical systems. it is specialised in combining and visualizing so-called 4D data (3D location and Time) and IoT sensor data. The Artificial Intelligence engine the company has developed manages a dynamic digital representation of field operations. It enables to understand, predict and optimise the performance of operations in real-time. This engine also powers ‘Shyn’, the company’s personal location and safety device for seamless positioning in GNSS-denied environments. epic.blue currently serves the First Responder community and the Pharmaceutical and Industry 4.0 markets.