Tel Aviv: It is presented as the most advanced robotic combat logistic system, and it is. But raising your eyes a little higher, the system that has been developed by Israeli company Rafael, is without any doubt going to revolutionise the battle field.
RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems recently demonstrated to the UK Ministry of Defence an end-to-end system for planning and managing logistic resupply for units deployed on the battlefield. The demonstrated solution was subsequently selected by the UK Ministry of Defence for the award of a contract for experimentation activity under Lot 1 of the UK Ministry of Defence Project THESEUS – a Joint Tactical Autonomous Resupply and Replenishment (JTARR).
The end-to-end system is directed by a single operator mission control and management system. By employing fully autonomous UAVs and UGVs, the system provides a unique and ground-breaking solution to the challenge of battlefield logistic resupply.
With an added focus of minimizing the number of forces in the combat arena through minimizing the manpower requirement, the system relies on fully autonomous unmanned air and ground platforms. These components are managed and controlled by a master mission management system which is based on modern technologies including COMBAT AI, GPS-free navigation and advanced image processing.
The logistics system, whose purpose is to perform delivery tasks to the tactical level draws and gathers information from a variety of existing battlefield sources (such as BMS and various command and information systems) as well as from commanders and units in the field. The system then analyses the information and uses it to generate meaningful logistic resupply tasks. Through the AI algorithms the main mission control and management system can select the most appropriate and efficient platforms for each task, and then plan the respective individual tasks. Simultaneously, the system plans the overarching task from a systemic standpoint. The execution of the mission is carried out autonomously by each of the platforms, without the need to risk human life. Moreover, mission accomplishment is enhanced and ensured by the built-in range of intelligent algorithms which allow the system to identify and autonomously adapt to allow it to deal with the wide array of obstacles and threats that can arise on the battlefield.
Shmuel Olansky, head of multi-domain Warfare directorate at Rafael, said that the solution developed by RAFAEL, utilizing the capability offered by autonomous platforms and supported by autonomous control system decision making allows us to minimize the number soldiers on the battlefield and to perform the logistical tasks more efficiently and more safely. Talking with the program managers in Rafael, the scope of the program and its potential for more than supplying ammo and food to front line units becomes clear.
Michal Vermouth, head of land autonomous systems unit in Rafael explains that the currently used logistic systems are complicated and slow, “Our systems allows unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and drones to perform the mission.” She explained that the system’s “brain” gets all the requests from the different units in the combat zones. Then it puts in the equation all the different ways to bring the supplies , the best platform to perform the mission “A drone can make the way to an isolated fighting unit in 90 seconds and fly back to be reloaded.”
Golan B, marketing and business development director, land systems unit of Rafael, explains that the very advanced algorithm decides what to send, when and by what carrying platform” in certain conditions the mission will be changed after it is launched as more urgent resupply problems are identified in a different combat unit.
The Rafael official explained that the algorithm calculates the immediate resupply needs and puts all other factors to optimize the delivery safely and in the fastest way. “The AI engine we developed in Rafael is the hearth of the system. It’s the most advanced of its kind and based on the company’s vast experience in using AI in a great number of our advanced weapon systems,” the company’s official said.
According to the Rafael officials, while other companies are focusing on the autonomous operation of a single vehicle, the effort in the Israeli company has been to enable such operation to a large number of different platforms that will work according to commands delivered by a centralized automatic operation centre. “The AI based systems will lower the cognitive burden on the soldiers and enable them to concelebrate in fighting while the logistic missions are performed by the systems,” Golan B said.
And while the focus is now on logistics, it is obvious that such an advanced AI Based system is also capable of controlling the growing number of autonomous ground fighting vehicles, currently being developed in the world including Israel.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
