Combatant commander tasked with homeland defense warns of shortage of AI capabilities

U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command don't have sufficient artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, the dual-hatted chief of both organizations warned Monday. The Pentagon is pursuing new space-based sensors, communications systems and other capabilities to improve situational awareness. But it needs AI to better crunch and share the data it collects. "This year's budget, I think, moves the ball down the field with regards to domain awareness. We'll be able to hopefully field over-the-horizon capabilities, which will give us more standoff distance than what we currently have today. But we also need to take that domain awareness -- the sensors that we have today and any potential new sensors -- and share that data and information, and utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to make that data and information available sooner than we have in the past to decision-makers," Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command (Northcom) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told the Defense Writers Group.