A top-secret submarine prototype has been identified on Google Maps images by sharp-eyed users who spotted its futuristic design and quickly spread the word, the New York Post reported. Photos showing the "Manta Ray" autonomous vessel apparently docked at Port Hueneme naval base in California went viral Sunday as military and aeronautical buffs gawked at the rare glimpses. The submarine is named after the marine creature due to its physical similarity and ability to lurk for extended periods deep underwater. The "Manta Ray" aquatic defense vessel was spotted docked at Port Hueneme on Google Maps. The brainchild of Northrop Grumman, the vessel is part of a wider U.S. Navy project to augment the nation's long-range underwater fleet of unmanned vehicles.

The Pentagon will look to develop new artificial intelligence-guided planes, offering two contracts that several private companies have been competing to obtain. The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) project is part of a 6 billion program that will add at least 1,000 new drones to the U.S. Air Force. These drones would deploy alongside human-piloted jets and provide cover for them, acting as escorts with full weapons capabilities that could also act as scouts or communications hubs, The Wall Street Journal reported. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril Industries have all taken up the challenge. General Atomics supplied the Reaper and Predator drones the U.S. has deployed in numerous campaigns in the Middle East, and Anduril is a newcomer to the field, founded in 2017 by inventor Palmer Luckey, an entrepreneur who founded Oculus VR.

Today, we have more information readily available at our fingertips (or by simple voice command) than any other time in history. Whenever you pose a question to Amazon's Alexa or the Google Assistant, you're effectively asking an artificial intelligence (AI) search algorithm to cull the Internet for a brief sentence or two that will answer your question. Increasingly, architects are using AI-leaning software tools in a similar way, calling on algorithms to cull the world of architectural possibilities quickly and efficiently for design approaches that help to meet the growing demand for sustainable architecture and green technology. "In architecture, AI is generally synonymous with generative design -- or, as I like to call it, 'optioneering,'" explains Dan Stine, director of design technology at Lake Flato Architects, San Antonio, Texas. "Our software tools use algorithms that generate a large number of design options based on parameters we define, then rank those options according to how well they meet our criteria. Ultimately, we select the option that works best for a given project."

We're starting today's 3D Printing News Briefs with a new system announcement, as Farsoon just introduced its FS200M 2 platform to the AMEA and North America AM market. Moving on, Senvol and Northrop Grumman presented together at RAPID about using machine learning to improve process parameter optimization. Finally, United Performance Metals announced a new Additive Manufacturing Solutions Center, and a new Innovation Centre for advanced materials & digitalization was established by TWI and Manchester Metropolitan University. Farsoon Technologies has introduced the latest addition to its medium-size metal LPBF line--the FS200M 2 platform, with a powerful dual 500-watt laser configuration and 425 x 230 x 300 mm build volume. The company says the versatile, compact printer offers maximized productivity and turn-over rates, and is well-suited for medium to high volume metal series production and prototyping.

The Navy is progressively phasing artificial intelligence (AI) into its ship systems, weapons, networks, and command and control infrastructure as computer automation becomes more reliable and advanced algorithms make once-impossible discernments and analyses. Previously segmented data streams on ships, drones, aircraft, and even submarines are now increasingly able to share organized data in real-time, in large measure due to breakthrough advances in AI and machine learning. AI can, for instance, enable command and control systems to identify moments of operational relevance from among hours or days or surveillance data in milliseconds, something which saves time, maximizes efficiency, and performs time-consuming procedural tasks autonomously at an exponentially faster speed. "Multiple data bytes of information will be passed around on the networks here in the near future. So as we think about big data, and how do we handle all that data and turn it into information without getting overloaded, this will be a key part of AI, then we're talking about handling decentralized systems," Nathan Husted of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock told an audience at the 2022 Sea Air Space Symposium.

Under a new contract awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Northrop Grumman will develop a prototype artificial intelligence assistant. The contract is part of DARPA's Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance program. The prototype will be embedded in an augmented reality (AR) headset to help rotary pilots perform expected and unexpected tasks. Northrop Grumman, in partnership with the University of Central Florida, will develop an Operator and Context Adaptive Reasoning Intuitive Assistant that will support UH-60 Blackhawk pilots, who fly with both visual and instrumented flight, which varies with weather, time of day, and other environmental factors. "The goal of this prototype is to broaden a pilot's skillset," said Erin Cherry, senior autonomy program manager, Northrop Grumman.

Questions that loom large for the wider application of artificial intelligence (AI) in Defense Department operations often center on trust. How does the operator know if the AI is wrong, that it made a mistake, that it didn't behave as intended? Answers to questions like that come from a technical discipline known as Responsible AI (RAI). It's the subject of a report issued by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in mid-November called Responsible AI Guidelines in Practice, which addresses a requirement in the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to ensure that the DoD has "the ability, requisite resourcing, and sufficient expertise to ensure that any artificial intelligence technology…is ethically and reasonably developed." DIU's RAI guidelines provide a framework for AI companies, DOD stakeholders and program managers that can help to ensure that AI programs are built with the principles of fairness, accountability, and transparency at each step in the development cycle of an AI system, according to Jared Dunnmon, technical director of the artificial intelligence/machine learning portfolio at DIU.

The timeframe for NASA's return to the moon is in question, but when it does, it will have to decide what it wants its astronauts to cruise around the lunar surface in. Northrop Grumman announced on Tuesday that it is designing a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to transport the agency's Artemis astronauts around the moon. It is teaming with several different companies, including AVL, tiremaker Michelin, Lunar Outpost and Intuitive Machines to design the rover. The announcement comes just hours after a government watchdog said NASA will miss its target for landing humans on the moon in late 2024 by'several years.' Northrop Grumman announced on Tuesday that it is designing a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to transport the agency's Artemis astronauts around the moon A report from NASA's inspector general said cost overruns and the time needed to proper testing were the likely reasons NASA would miss the target date to return to the moon.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for programmers are forecast to grow "much faster than average" over the next 10 years -- which makes sense. As digital transformation becomes a top priority across industries -- in many cases, to meet growing consumer demand driven by the ubiquity and ease of mobile-first experiences -- there's a commensurate need for skilled coders capable of translating market strategy into usable software. But where are these application experts and software savants most in-demand? Where are they pushing the boundaries of digital delivery, and what's on the horizon for creative computation? Computers and humans process information differently.

Here's What You Need to Remember: From a tactical circumstance, given that attack submarines and nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines are likely to conduct large amounts of clandestine patrols, it seems as though an ability to avoid having to surface would bring an extraordinary operational advantage. Could newer kinds of AI-enabled undersea drone data processing and analysis introduce new breakthrough possibilities when it comes to solving the longstanding challenge of achieving high-speed, real-time connectivity? Submarine commanders and weapons developers explain that UUV undersea functionality is dependent upon limited battery power and would therefore be further enabled by an ability to "process the data at the source of the sensor" to distinguish and transmit only the most critical information needed by human decision-makers. "That's the concept, how do you get all of that information back to a human to analyze. Maybe you don't want to do that? Maybe you want to allow the UUV to do some initial analysis and make some modifications to its behavior autonomously?"