Automation and Artificial intelligence for Naval ISR: U.S. Navy VS. China's Navy
Abstract
The U.S. Navy faces challenges as it moves toward automating the maritime battlespace and risks falling behind its rising great power competitor, the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). How are the U.S. Navy and the PLAN adopting automation to improve naval intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR)? Results of this study indicate that the U.S. Navy is an innovator and early adopter, while the PLAN has embraced automated systems and artificial intelligence (AI) as a late modernizer, benefiting from knowledge of already relevant technologies. The U.S. Navys Aegis and Ship Self Defense System and AI technologies enable maritime superiority; however, the PLAN is advancing in AI technologies faster than the U.S. Navy. This thesis compares the two navies in their adoption of automation and AI technologies for ISR. For purposes of this study, automation is defined as a process or specific, task-oriented system that operates without immediate human control. AI goes deeper and includes advances aimed at creating machines able to analyze, evaluate and optimize alternatives in pursuit of broader aims. I employ Everett Rogers S-Curve model of the diffusion process as a framework for analyzing efforts to increase efficiency of naval planners and decision makers as they ponder which automated and AI technologies to adopt and how best to utilize them.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1114583
Entities
People
- Crystal S. Hong
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School