Amid China activities in Pacific, US military should turn to machine learning: American admiral
- Joint Forces commander tells Silicon Valley execs last three years marked by ‘erosion of strategic, operational and tactical’ warnings as PLA evolves
- Large-scale data analytics could enhance US military’s ability to forecast ‘what our competitors are doing’ and ‘be prepared for aggression’
Addressing Silicon Valley executives on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Defence Innovation Unit, a Pentagon group created to hasten the use of cutting-edge technologies, Admiral Samuel Paparo described difficulties the US had in picking up on military warnings.
The People’s Liberation Army was “raising the threshold of warning” to a point that soon the US would see “a force sufficient to execute a profound military operation” in the field “operating under a fig leaf of exercise”, the US Navy admiral added.
Other regional challenges included North Korea’s military provocation, Russia’s maritime ambitions in the Pacific, and the two countries’ weapons trade, he said.
While the Joint Forces have increasingly partnered with US allies, Paparo said “mass data analytics and processing” as well as the evaluation and dissemination of intelligence products should “go deeper to be able to determine” warnings.
Data analytics, for instance, could improve the American forces’ ability to forecast the intentions of competitors and “be prepared for aggression”.
Paparo said the challenge amounted to “what application can execute the mass data analytics and the precise covariance calculations that deliver a true, accurate picture to the war fighter [instantaneously] … with a low probability of intercept and with the kind of encryption that ensures that it’s secure”.
Paparo said these developments represented China’s “undaunted ambitions for its excessive claims or their desire to coerce, if not effect through the use of force”.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.
Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.