Virtual Battle Environment | First test: Bundeswehr and NATO have weapon systems with AI

A virtual maritime combat environment was developed in “GhostPlay”. This means that missions with different weapon systems can be played through – but also carried out. Photo: TKMS The Ukraine war is the first in which it becomes clear how various weapon systems in different domains are becoming increasingly automated and even pursue their goals independently. But the larger the number of unmanned platforms becomes, the more difficult it is to control their interaction using human staff alone. Artificial intelligence (AI) is now intended to perfect these systems. The Ministry of Defense in Kiev is working on a digital battle management system that will distribute and coordinate tasks autonomously.

On Thursday, results of the very similar German research project “GhostPlay@Sea” were presented in Berlin. It is the maritime offshoot of “GhostPlay,” which launched in 2021, and is funded by the Bundeswehr technology program. In addition to the Hamburg Bundeswehr University, several defense companies, the German AI company 21strategies and NATO with its “Competence Center for Operations in Narrow and Shallow Sea Areas” are involved.

The focus is on a virtual maritime combat environment, a so-called digital twin. This means that missions with different weapon systems can be played through – but also carried out. In more than 5,000 simulation runs, the project partners examined how crewless surface vehicles, reconnaissance and so-called kamikaze drones can be combined with manned systems. Among other things, the equipment and its armament were varied in different scenarios.

A particular focus is on the use of so-called multi-agent systems. They coordinate assigned tasks with each other and react to changes in the situation. They also act largely autonomously and can therefore remain able to act as a group even when communication is limited.

For training, but also real operations, the virtual combat environment also receives an AI-controlled opponent, through which all available data on equipment and soldiers is programmed. In the simulation, they can adapt their behavior and develop their own tactical approaches. Your own systems must therefore also react to changing situations.

According to the project partners, the technology can now independently develop options for action and adapt the organization of its own associations to the respective situation. Simulations are said to have shown that the AI ​​developed complex swarm tactics and a combat order of opposing forces completely independently. For example, armed speedboats were identified as the greatest danger and eliminated first. Weapon systems that proved to be ineffective were no longer used by the AI ​​during further training.

The system is also said to have proven that aggressiveness leads to success: a purely defensive stance by the attacked “blue forces” often failed, according to a report from a project partner on “GhostPlay@Sea”. An early, coordinated attack on the threats drastically increased the success rate.

A first test is said to have already taken place off the coast of Denmark, it was said on Thursday at the presentation of “GhostPlay@Sea”. However, it is unclear which technology was tested. Atlas Elektronik, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, is involved in the project as the leading industrial partner. The arms company produces, among other things, sea drones. The Düsseldorf company Rheinmetall, which is also involved, produces flying drones known as “loitering munitions”.

Those involved did not elaborate on which decisions the AI ​​should make independently in the future and which would be left to humans on Thursday in Berlin. Military “digital twins” and the battle management systems based on them require data that is as accurate as possible and updated in real time about every device and every soldier of the enemy. This may explain why the German sensor manufacturer Hensoldt, in which the federal government holds a blocking minority, is also involved in “GhostPlay@Sea”.

The unprecedented military buildup as part of the “turning point” proclaimed by then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was aimed at Russia. Training data for virtual warfare systems therefore comes primarily from Ukraine. "GhostPlay@Sea" could also be fed with it: Kiev and Berlin signed a declaration of intent on the exchange of defense data last April - it was the first agreement of its kind for Ukraine, followed by Great Britain in August.

The digital information about Russia's army will be used, among other things, to develop image recognition and tactical AI applications. As far as we can find out, no virtual battlefield information from the Ukraine war has yet flowed to Germany.

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