“Capital follows confidence” as defence courts private money
Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
Project SCEPTER is designed to develop machine-generated strategies to be evaluated within trusted simulation environments with thorough human review. (Image: BAE Systems)
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded BAE Systems an $8.3 million contract to develop an autonomy system to speed operational planning under the Strategic Chaos Engine for Planning, Tactics, Experimentation, and Resiliency (SCEPTER) programme.
SCEPTER is designed to develop machine-generated strategies to be evaluated within trusted simulation environments with thorough human review.
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‘Successful planning is about developing trusted, resilient operational plans for complex decision spaces,’ said Marco Pravia, chief scientist at BAE Systems’ FAST Labs. ‘The SCEPTER system will push the state-of-the-art in the production of machine-generated strategies.’
SCEPTER is planned as a two-phase, three-year effort.
Under its Phase 1 contract, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs will provide the machine-learning backed system and carry out tests to demonstrate the approach.
Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
The Department of National Defence expects initial contracts to deliver thousands of uncrewed systems, but has yet to establish the quantities, capability mix or deadline behind Ottawa’s promised tenfold expansion.
The company told Shephard that Ukraine is operating modified Protector weapon stations originally supplied for armoured vehicles, with human operators authorising engagements from hundreds of kilometres away.
A report from the Council on Geostrategy argues the UK should move away from a traditional balanced force and shift investment to naval, air and space capabilities, backed by a larger fleet of attack submarines and deeper AUKUS integration.
At its technology summit in London, attended by Shephard, Thales UK examined the importance of speed to delivery, the growing focus on cross-domain capabilities and how procurement reform could be crucial for future battlefield advantage.
Are all systems ready for the next mission? Have upgrades been applied? Are all assets aligned to deploy together, on time and fully prepared? In modern defence operations, readiness is no longer measured platform by platform. It is measured by how well people, assets, data and decisions move together — across land, sea and air.