In a bid to accelerate military decision-making—particularly in the European and Indo-Pacific regions—the Pentagon has hired Scale AI to prototype an artificial-intelligence program to help plan military campaigns, test battle scenarios, anticipate threats, and more.
Dubbed Thunderforge, the system is intended to enable commanders “to navigate evolving operational environments” using “advanced large language models (LLMs), AI-driven simulations, and interactive agent-based wargaming,” the Defense Innovation Unit said Wednesday in a statement.
Under the contract, [the value of which was not disclosed] Scale AI will work with Anduril, whose Lattice system synthesizes drone and other sensor data for faster combat operations, and with Microsoft, which makes LLM software.
The final product will go to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, or INDOPACOM, and U.S. European Command, EUCOM, to help with “campaign development, theater-wide resource allocation, and strategic assessment,” according to DIU.
In February, Adm. Sam Paparo, the leader of INDOPACOM, told the Honolulu Defense Forum that artificial intelligence can help monitor Chinese actions and “suss out” potential threats, such as a large-scale exercise being used as a cover for military action.
The command has been working to develop a platform called the Mission Partner Environment, to enable U.S. military services and partner militaries to share intelligence and a real-time threat picture. Paparo said AI is needed to handle the large volumes of data coming in from sensors and sources, and to share it with recipients of varying classification levels.
“We are an AI-enabled headquarters now, using an AI large language model,” Paparo said in February. He emphasized that artificial intelligence is “not a replacement for human decisions, but is helping commanders make decisions now, and we’re propagating this throughout the headquarters” with the intention of INDOPACOM “lead[ing] the way in AI adoption, with the best AI tools.”
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