France turns to Airbus in push to modernize military with AI

France appears to be accelerating the speed and sovereignty of its defense systems by integrating AI. Its military has awarded a contract worth up to $58 million to Airbus, the European aerospace giant.

Under the deal, the French Armed Forces will enhance its weapons, information, communication, and cybersecurity systems with AI.

The first phase of the deal reportedly focuses on upgrading Spationav, France’s maritime surveillance system, to process satellite-derived data more efficiently and quickly.

Spationav comprises a suite of sensors, including the Automatic Identification System, to track and detect maritime activities along France’s extensive coastline.

The system, which includes sensors and cameras positioned across 105 sites along France’s 6,000 km (3,728 miles) coastline, is used by multiple French agencies, including the Navy and Customs.

Future implementations are expected to extend across intelligence, cybersecurity, and the management of military telecommunications networks, as France aims to centralize all data collected from sensors in satellites, radars, and drones.

“With the proliferation of sensors (satellites, radars, drones, smartphones, social networks) generating massive amounts of data, only AI can process it efficiently and quickly,” said Airbus in a press release.

“The aim is to save humans time in activities they already carry out, as well as to perform tasks that are impossible for humans to complete, given the urgency of the situation or the excessive volume of data to be processed.”

Militaries around the world have already used, and will continue to use, AI to process data at scale and a speed that will certainly exceed the capacity of humans.

We shouldn’t expect miracles, of course. As Anthony King writes in his recent book AI, Automation, and War: The Rise of a Military-Tech Complex, AI is definitely not going to replace human soldiers with killer robots.

Instead, militaries around the world have already used, and will continue to use, AI to process data at scale and a speed that will certainly exceed the capacity of humans.

The French Defence Procurement Agency had previously tapped Harmattan AI to supply 1,000 AI-enabled drones for training.

Finally, Dassault, the industrial conglomerate that produces Rafale fighter jets, and French tech corporation Thales announced a collaboration to develop AI that helps pilots and drones detect threats, plan missions, and operate faster and more precisely.

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