The British Army has used artificial intelligence for the first time during a military exercise in Estonia.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said soldiers from the 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade used an AI engine, drawing on automation and smart analytics to rapidly cut through masses of complex data and provide information on the surrounding environment and terrain.
It was used during an annual large scale NATO exercise by soldiers from the UK, France, Belgium, Denmark and Estonia while carrying out live fire drills.
The deployment was a first of its kind for the Army and was built on collaboration between the MoD and industry partners, designing the AI to match the way the Army is trained to operate. The capability can be hosted in the cloud or operate in independent mode.
Major James Mcevoy of the 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade said: “This was a fantastic opportunity to use a new and innovative piece of technology in a deployed environment. The kit was shown to outperform our expectations and has clear applications for improving our level of analysis and speed at which we conduct our planning.
“I’m greatly looking forward to further opportunities to work with this. In future, the UK armed forces will increasingly use AI to predict adversaries’ behaviour, perform reconnaissance and relay real time intelligence from the battlefield.”
Operation Cabrit is the British Army’s deployment to Estonia where British troops are leading a multinational battlegroup as part of the enhanced Forward Presence.
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
