Lodamun

[imperialpearl]

With its eyes squarely set on revolutionising the state of warfare for the Lodamese Armed Forces, the Armed Forces Projects Agency (AFPA), the premier agency responsible for collaborating with private sector entities on leveraging Lodamun’s growing research potential in developing advanced weapons, announced earlier this morning that it had entered into a collaboration with Hemlock-Rogway on an “Advanced Flight Model”. The AFM as it was referred to in the AFPA press statement, seeks to revolutionise/completely transform the face of aerial combat for the Lodamese Air Force and thus reinforce its growing competitive edge in the aerospace domain. Largely concerned amidst the various cost overruns and the ever-increasing struggles related to maintaining multi-million dollar aircraft and training hundreds of airmen/women in various combat tactics, the Department of the Air Force initiated a clandestine programme to look into cutting costs yet maintaining much of the Air Force’s growing lethality. Of the various recommendations/proposals coming out of said clandestine programme, a greater focus on ranged weaponry (stand-off munitions), and greater intelligence/battlefield situational awareness were emphasised alongside another, much less known project: the AFM. 

According to the press statement, the AFM would be an unmanned drone which would work in tandem with manned assets towards enhancing their capabilities without having to bring more expensive pieces of equipment on station. The focus on unmanned drones comes amidst the success of the Lodamese Coast Guard’s drone programme which utilises long-range maritime patrol drones to patrol areas of Lodamun’s economic exclusion zone and beyond where positioning an offshore patrol cutters may not be economically. This success ultimately spawned a flurry of interest among DoD officials in the capabilities of drones in the combat environment. “The AFM represents a paradigm shift in how we intend to conduct aerospace operations going forward. Whilst it would be unwise to place all of our faith in unmanned drones, it has nonetheless carved out its place within our evolving doctrine as a means of both augmenting and in some cases partially substituting the roles manned airframes would have played in the future combat environment.

Hemlock-Rogway, who is the project leader of the entire programme noted that it had been eyeing an aggressive shift into autonomous systems recognising the success of the Azuron drone. In a press statement which came after the AFPA announcement, the company noted that former airforce service personnel had come to it with various proposals on a future combat airframe. They noted that the ground forces (army, Commonwealth Guard and Marine Corps) had been gradually adopting modular technologies, which would enable them to be extremely flexible in the modern combat environment. Although the Air Force had modularity in terms of munitions and semi-modularity in terms of capabilities (re: ECM pods), they noted that the vast majority of the Air Force’s equipment was still purpose-built. “We still need AEW&C aircraft, still need these massive tankers to refuel, still need physical airframes for electronic warfare,” said one of the airmen who insisted on remaining anonymous. Part of the philosophy as envisioned by the Hemlock-Rogway team speaks to reducing and in some cases eliminating the need for human involvement in certain operations in the combat environment. It noted that as air combat becomes increasingly complex, there must be a focus among the defence establishment to reduce loss of life among service personnel. 

Thus the AFM, from the perspective of Hemlock-Rogway, is the natural successor to a lot of the existing platforms currently fielded by the Lodamese Air Force. Cooking up a scenario wherein the AFM (based on its intended/anticipated capabilities) would set itself apart from existing LAF hardware the company noted: “The Air Force is seeking to conduct a broad SEAD (suppression of enemy air defence) or DEAD (destruction of enemy air defence) as part of a broader campaign against a foreign adversary. An AFM drone capable of conducting electronic warfare operations could immediately be brought on station and get to work on breaking guidance subsystems locks from enemy air defence. This would allow for the jet which it will most likely be accompanying to conduct other operations whilst that is done. The drone focuses on Mission B whilst the manned aircraft focuses on Mission A.”

According to the AFPA, both Hemlock-Rogway and itself were looking into enhancing their knowledge of autonomous flight systems, as it noted that the idea of the AFM being controlled by a human similar to the Azuron maritime patrol drone would be largely unfeasible given its intended mission set. “These UCAVs must be able to adapt to the changing environment whilst also conducting complex analysis on the stop.” The AFPA statement read. It explained that the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning although in its infancy in the Lodamese defence community, could ultimately lend itself to the actualisation/realisation of the AFPA’s ambitions with the programme. “The AFM once much of the groundwork has been set should be able to take off, fly into the AO, conduct its operations and land.

In realising this ambition, it is therefore evident that there is a need for greater collaboration between the defence community and those already making headways in the space of AI and machine learning within Lodamun,” the statement concluded. It is being reported that officials from the Hemlock-Rogway had reportedly met with MetaMind, the startup AI company based in Newchester, however dissenting reports point to a potential attempt by the AFPA to develop its own AI/machine learning model in-house. “The AFPA must set itself apart from any research agency in Lodamun or possibly on this continent. As is its nature it must actually be the entity responsible for the development of advanced systems for the armed forces. It cannot afford to be just another research financing agency, if that was the intention we wouldn’t have created the AFPA, we would have funnelled projects like the AFM through the RPA (Research Projects Administration).” one senator railed against the idea of the AFPA collaborating with the private-sector on otherwise lucrative projects.