The U.S. Air Force plans to hold four allied exercises in 2025 similar to the recent ShOC-N, short for Shadow Operations Center-Nellis, Capstone 24B, to test artificial intelligence applications in combat.
Lt. Col. Wesley Schultz of the U.S. Air Force’s 805th Combat Training Squadron told Defense One that ShOC-N addresses the challenge of advancing interoperability among allies more rapidly and accurately in battle situations.
Hurdling Interoperability Barriers
Schultz, who served as the operations director of the December exercise, said the exercise, which gathered forces from the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, focused on “reducing barriers to interoperability and information sharing” between the participants.
“Unified intelligence and battle management awareness is critical to success in these environments,” he added. Schultz further noted that Canada will be “playing a key role” in forthcoming ShOC-N exercises.
AI Technology From Palantir
In the recent ShOC-N, the participants demonstrated an AI application in real-time sharing of mobile forces’ location through a narrow, secured datalink. USAF used Palantir’s Maven Smart Systems and AI software from Maverick to execute the distributed AI application.
Besides ShOC-N, U.S. and Canadian forces are also conducting joint military exercises in Operation Noble Defender, which North American Aerospace Defense Command has held since 2021. In its recent iteration held in Greenland from Jan. 28 to Feb. 11, the force deployment involved about 125 American and Canadian servicemen supported by several NORAD jetfighters and helicopters, according to a CBS News report.