IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - July 2021 - 101

Koch
Figure 6.
Coordinated reconnaissance and armed drones enable the FOC to defend against threats in compliance with the RoE. ß Fraunhofer FKIE.
In conclusion, AI and IF combined with automation
enable cognitive and volitive assistance systems. Through
them, military actors acquire knowledge about threats, combatants,
uninvolved parties, and options for action in the various
operational theaters. At the same time, risks for friendly
forces, the civil population, the infrastructure, the environment,
etc., can be minimized. Such assistants may thus help
to master complex tasks more adequately, to balance human
subjectivities, and to protect noncombatants. Moreover, the
physical presence of humans is thus increasingly dispensable
in dangerous situations. In summary, cognitive and volitive
assistance systems are ofcentral importance to
- evaluate imperfect and incomplete mass data;
- to fuse context knowledge with current data streams;
- to fuse complementary and heterogeneous sources;
- to estimate the plausibility of the information content;
- to enable manned-unmanned teaming and action;
- to enable ethical, legal, and societal compliance.
Since decentralization and automation due to digitalization
in defense implies vulnerability, own systems need
to be protected against attacks from the electromagnetic
spectrum and the cyber space, on the one hand, while
strategies to attack enemy systems in this way are to be
developed on the other.
On February 6, 2019, Germany and France launched
the most ambitious European armament project of the
coming decades-FCAS, where manned fighter jets and
unmanned " remote carriers " form of a comprehensively
networked system of systems. As " loyal wingmen, " cooperating
multiple-sensor, multiple-effector drones protect
manned platforms and execute reconnaissance or combat
missions, whereas satellites, airborne early warning, inflight
refueling, or air transporting will be integrated. The
core is an " Air Combat Cloud, " symbolically visualized in
Figure 7, which makes all relevant information available
to all actors on a mission in real time. In the digital era,
decision superiority decides between success and failure
of a mission.
JULY 2021
Since AI and IF combined with automation are
enabling technologies for FCAS, the ethical and legal
challenges previously discussed are evident. For this reason
and for the first time in Germany, a working group
accompanies a major armament project from the outset
with the explicit mission to operationalize ethical and legal
principles through appropriate design on the technological
level. While compliance with the national and international
legal framework is only the " ethical minimum " of a more
comprehensive approach, transparent proof that FCAS is
indispensable for protecting the Common Good of Europe
and its partners is the basis for the political implementation
and societal acceptance ofthis large project.
In accordance with the German Military Aviation
Strategy 2016 [34], the responsibility of human decision
makers is pivotal for all conceivable mission scenarios.
The working group mentioned [35] benefits from the complementarity
between industry and research. The envisaged
overall architecture is expected to contribute to
responsible use by reducing the complexity of future missions
and to facilitate responsible human decision-making.
Technological complexity reduction is, thus, a key development
goal. Realistic simulations accompanying the
technological development from the very beginning shall
ensure that ethical, legal, and even societal compliance is
not at the expense of effectiveness in combat. Furthermore,
participation of relevant stakeholders, including the
society as a whole and represented by a cross section of
political foundations, universities, and political think
tanks, is decisive for the success of this initiative [36].
CONTROLLABILITY: BASIS OF MILITARY SYSTEM
DESIGN
AI in defense enables military decision-makers to consciously
perceive and responsibly decide even in the highly
complex and accelerated technosphere of modern conflicts.
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
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IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - July 2021

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