Mysterious ‘deep thought’ research revealed in list of secret UK military projects --[Reported by Umva mag]

Secretive military technology projects taking the UK armed forces into a new age of warfare have had their titles revealed for the first time.

The highly advanced systems being developed by the Air, Army and Navy commands all include frontier work in artificial intelligence (AI). 

The projects range from a crewless submarine the length of a bus to trials of autonomous kit for a fleet of Puma uncrewed aerial vehicles. 

Some have not been publically disclosed — with the nature of the work only hinted at by cryptic names, such as Air Command’s ‘Deep Thought’.  

The title is more commonly known as the name of the supercomputer in Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  

In the military context, it could signify an initiative focused on advanced AI and strategic decision making.

The service wing’s headings also include projects named Air Power, Omnia, Redkite, AI Safety, Drake and Argus, a document released to Metro.co.uk under the Freedom of Information Act shows. 

Navy Command is conducting far-sighted research and development in 18 areas, including a trial of large language models across the service arm.  

The system allows mountains of information to be processed and analysed in real time, allowing a bot to translate, generate responses and perform other tasks like a human would do.

Other headings in the Navy’s list cover the use of AI for acoustics, wargaming, identifying vessels and to counter hostile drones.  

Project Cetus, the Navy’s first crewless submarine, which is named after a mythological sea monster, is another of the subject areas disclosed.  

The £15.4 million vessel is expected to be able to operate alongside or independently of other vessels when it reaches dockyards this year. 

As with many of the projects, it’s not clear how the weapons systems will operate, but an early picture of the battery-powered UUV shows it has a ‘payload bay’.  

Drone technology features on the list through autonomous kit being trialed on the Puma remotely-piloted fleet and a ‘heavy lifting challenge’.  

Potentially revolutionary work in the sky includes an experimental programme where human crewed aircraft have flown alongside an autonomous jet drone.  

Army Command headings include a project suggesting work is underway to deploy an AI advisor under the heading ‘Army Personnel Centre – Virtual Board Member.’ 

A little-known project named Black Opal, worth at least £3.8 million, which involves a ‘human centric’ approach to giving the Army an edge through data exploitation and AI, also features in the disclosure. 

Another, entitled ‘Robotics and Autonomous Systems/Human Machine Teaming’, is viewed as being part of the future of the British armed forces.  

Under the plan, humans work alongside powerful AI and robotics systems which increasingly require less supervision to perform complex tasks.  

Transforming the service arm’s digital systems is the focus of other programmes while little or nothing is known about the work taking place under some of the headings, including ‘McBride’ and ‘Organon’.

The latter name is the title given to Aristotle’s six works on logic.

Peter Burt, of Drone Wars UK, said: ‘Although many of the projects on this list are identified by their code names, it’s clear that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is pushing forward the use of AI for a wide range of purposes.   

‘Some of these, such as autonomous piloting for drones and identification of objects, have applications in war-fighting and in the future development of weapon systems that need no human control – killer robots.

‘The MoD has paid lip service to the ethical use of AI, but it is racing ahead with the development of new systems without having developed the detailed guidance needed to explain to developers and operators exactly how AI systems should and should not be used.’ 

The list of 34 headings across the three arms was provided by the MoD after the request was submitted in December.  

The original request asked for details of current AI-related projects across the armed forces, but the MoD refused to provide the information on the grounds that sourcing the headings would be too time-consuming.

No further information was disclosed other than the titles across the three business areas. 

Drone Wars, which investigates and challenges the use of deadly military technology, is calling on the government to back a recommendation by the United Nations that lethal autonomous weapon systems which operate without human control should be prohibited. 

‘Israel’s use of artificial intelligence for selecting targets during its invasion of Gaza has shown how deadly the consequences of using these systems in wartime can be,’ Mr Burt said.   

‘High levels of unnecessary civilian deaths have occurred because of the speed of targeting, the use of inaccurate data, and inadequate human supervision by Israeli military forces. 

‘These are not systems that any democratic or humanitarian government should be using.

‘The UK should be supporting moves by the UN’s Secretary General calling for all states to agree a new international treaty to prohibit weapons systems that operate without human control and that cannot be used in compliance with international laws which protect civilians. 

‘Many people will be shocked to learn that, far from supporting a treaty, the UK is one of a small number of irresponsible states trying to block it.’ 

Artificial intelligence has been described as a ‘critical technology’ for the future of British armed forces by the MoD.

The importance was stressed in the Defence Command Paper published in July 2023, which followed then Defence Minister Ben Wallace’s announcement two years earlier that the number of fully-trained soldiers would be reduced by nearly 10,000 over the following four years.   

The document states: ‘Over the decades ahead, the ships, tanks and planes in our strike groups, armoured brigades and combat air squadrons will require ever fewer people but that will not necessarily mean our workforce will be smaller. We may have fewer people on the front line but a much larger community of specialists supporting them.’ 

In response to the comments by Drone Wars, an MoD spokesperson said: ‘There is no basis for these exaggerated claims.

‘We have been very transparent about our ambition to use AI for a wide range of defence applications, from improving corporate services to enhancing military capabilities.

‘We are committed to using AI safely, ethically and in full compliance with our legal obligations. We do not possess fully autonomous weapon systems and have no intention of developing them.

‘Across defence, there will always be appropriate human involvement in weapons which identify, select and attack targets.’

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