As geopolitical situations evolve, U.S. military officials said the way future conflicts will play out is changing quickly, too. That is why the military is beginning preparations now for potential escalations in the short and long term.
One example is reclaiming an airfield from the jungle on Tinian Island, in the Philippine Sea less than 2,000 miles from the coast of China. The U.S. Air Force used the island’s North Field to launch the nuclear attacks on Japan during World War II.
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In places like Tinian Island, the infrastructure is sparse. This is why Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said new technology that helps troops quickly adapt to their surroundings is essential.
“We need fully capable units with all the assets they need to fight China or possibly Russia on short or no notice,” Kendall said. “We need units fully ready to either deploy or conduct operations in place, also on short or no notice.”
During Special Operations Forces Week 2024 in May, Cubic Defense introduced technology that allows units to operate using a much smaller footprint. The D-Tech Fusion Edge High-Performance Compute, also known as “The Box,” is one of those tools.
“It took racks and racks took probably three or four trucks to do what hauling racks of servers around to do what this one box will do for the future warfighter books out there,” Retired Lt. Gen. James Terry, vice president of business development and strategy at Cubic Defense, said.
People involved with designing The Box said it can run a remote command and control operation. Additionally, it can take data produced by the tools in use and quickly format it for easy interpretation by ground teams as they make combat decisions.
“It’s about converging data transfer, translating that into intelligence, and then delivering that to a decision making in a timely manner so they can make the right decisions, and that’s what this does,” Terry said. “This is going to be exactly what those warfighters are going to need out there at those levels.”
Cubic Defense currently has several government contracts, but they have not confirmed who will use The Box first.
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Tags: China, Japan, Special operations forces, Technology, U.S. military, United States Special Operations Command
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
BUZZ WORDS. THE MILITARY, LIKE THE CORPORATE WORLD, HAS THEIR BUZZ WORDS. LISTEN TO LEADERSHIP TALK AND WORDS LIKE AUSTERE, INTEGRATION, AND BATTLESPACE, ROLL OFF THE TONGUE AS EASILY AS SYNERGY, BANDWIDTH, AND DISRUPTER. BUT WHAT ARE THEY REALLY TALKING ABOUT?
IN ESSENCE, THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT THE WAY THEY SEE THE NATURE OF FUTURE CONFLICTS.
FOR EXAMPLE, IN DECEMBER WE REPORTED FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS THE AIR FORCE IS REBUILDING AN AIRFIELD USED TO LAUNCH THE NUCLEAR ATTACKS ON JAPAN DURING WORLD WAR II, RECLAIMING TINIAN ISLAND’S NORTH FIELD FROM THE JUNGLE — JUST IN CASE IT’S NEEDED IN A CONFLICT WITH CHINA.
SOME OF YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHERE TINIAN ISLAND IS, IT’S RIGHT HERE, A LITTLE PIECE OF LAND IN THE PHILIPINE SEA, A LITTLE LESS THAN 2,000 MILES FROM THE COAST OF CHINA. NEEDLESS TO SAY THERE’S NOT A LOT OF INFRASTRUCTURE THERE. IT IS, IN A WORD, AUSTERE.
OPERATING IN THOSE KINDS OF CONDITIONS IS WHAT SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE, FRANK KENDALL TALKED ABOUT IN FEBRUARY AT THE AFA WARFARE SYMPOSIUM.
[Sec. Frank Kendall]
“We need fully capable units with all the assets they need to fight China or possibly Russia on short or no notice. We need units fully ready to either deploy or conduct operations in place, also on short or no notice.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
WHETHER IT’S FLYING SORTIES, OR DEPLOYING RECONNAISSANCE TROOPS, OPERATORS IN THE FIELD, IN PLACES LIKE TINIAN ISLAND, WILL NEED TOOLS LIKE THE ONE INTRODUCED BY CUBIC DEFENSE AT SOF WEEK 2024. OFFICIALLY CALLED THE D-TECH FUSION EDGE HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTE, OR E-H-P-C. THEY ALSO REFER TO IT AS “THE BOX’.
[Ret. Lt. Gen. James Terry]
“So think back in my, my timeframe. You know, it took racks and racks took probably three or four trucks to do what hauling racks of servers around to do what this one box will do for the future warfighter books out there. It’s good kit, good kit.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT TELL US “THE BOX” PROVIDES THE MUSCLE TO NOT ONLY RUN A REMOTE COMMAND AND CONTROL OPERATION BUT ALSO TAKE DATA PRODUCED BY WHATEVER TOOLS ARE IN USE, AND PUT THAT INFORMATION IN A FORMAT THAT ALLOWS THOSE ON THE GROUND TO MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS.
[Ret. Lt. Gen. James Terry]
“It’s about converging data transfer, translating that into intelligence, and then delivering that to a decision making in a timely manner. So they can make the right decisions. And that’s what this does.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
RETIRED LIEUTENT GENERAL JAMES TERRY IS THE VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGY FOR CUBIC DEFENSE. HE’S ALSO THE FORMER COMMANDER OF U-S ARMY CENTRAL COMMAND. HE SAYS THIS HARDWARE IS BUILT FOR THE EVOLVING NATURE OF COMBAT.
[Ret. Lt. Gen. James Terry]
“This is going to be exactly what those warfighters are going to need out there at those levels. It’s exciting. Very exciting.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FOR THE TECH MINDED, OR IF YOU WANT TO IMPRESS YOUR KIDS THAT USE GAMING P-Cs, THIS SINGLE CASE SOLUTION IS FITTED WITH A NVIDIA G-P-U PROCESSOR TO SUPPORT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING. IT ALSO HAS 512 GIGABYTES OF ULTRAFAST MEMORY AND 25 GIGABYTES OF NETWORKING. AND OH YEAH, IT HAS EIGHT SLOTS OF REMOVABLE HARD DRIVES, THAT OFFER UP TO A PETABYTE WORTH OF STORAGE.. IF YOU’RE TRYING TO DO THE MATH, THAT’S TEN THOUSAND TERABYTES.
EVEN WITH ALL OF THAT, TERRY SAYS WHAT THIS COMES DOWN TO IS PROPERLY EQUIPING THE PEOPLE MAKING IMPORTANT DECISIONS.
{SOT @ 00:00 FOR DEBRIEF// Name & Title} “We haven’t taken humans out of the loop yet. And we were not quite autonomous machines. So as long as there’s a human in that loop, he’s going to have to make a decision that needs to be a quality decision, this box will crunch all that data, if you apply some AI to it, sort through it, parse it, and then deliver it directly to that commander.”
{RYAN CONT VO} SO WHAT COMMANDER IS GOING TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THE E-H-P-C FIRST? THAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN. WHILE CUBIC DEFENSE CURRENTLY HAS SEVERAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS THERE’S NO OFFICIAL WORD A BUYER FOR THEIR NEWEST PIECE OF TECH. WHEN THAT HAPPENS, WE’LL LET YOU KNOW.
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