BUTLERVILLE, Ind. –
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) hosted the second annual Robust Artificial Intelligence Test Event (RAITE) at Muscatatuck Training Center on October 21-25. This event allowed members from academia, industry, and government to collaborate on an unclassified level and test AI efforts in real-world scenarios on a cyber-physical range.
“RAITE brings together multiple AI and counter-AI (C-AI) efforts to support U.S. government-wide research,” said Tyler Fitzsimmons, AI Chief Engineer for Platform Systems and RAITE Lead. “The critical customer base at NSWC Crane can leverage RAITE’s collaborative nature to ensure success in the AI/C-AI space, especially given the fast pace of the field.”
During the event, participants were divided into three teams – red, blue, and purple. The red and blue teams worked through the different scenarios, with the red team "acting" on the offensive through cyber or physical means against the blue team while they provided the baseline capabilities. During the exercise the purple team observed the experiment and provided metrics once it was completed.
Professor Paul Brenner is a Director in the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Research Computing and a Cyber Officer in the United States Air Force Reserves. Brenner attended the event with fellow faculty members and students to showcase their capabilities in AI.
“With the rapid evolution of AI technology and global and national security challenges, the annual RAITE event is an increasingly critical opportunity for Universities, Non-Governmental Organizations, Industry and the Department of Defense (DoD) to collaboratively prototype, leverage, secure and counter AI,” said Brenner. “University of Notre Dame faculty and students partnered to demonstrate the capabilities of advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) integrated into swarms of low cost robots. The prototype swarm was able to dynamically adjust image recognition capabilities under differing attack scenarios in order to accomplish a target mission to locate an improvised explosive device (IED).”
The future of warfare is ever changing, with AI playing a critical role. In her 2024 Navigation Plan, Chief of Naval Operations ADM Lisa Franchetti states that the US Navy is “pursuing the long-lead experimentation that will define the future’s hybrid fleet,” allowing our sailors to stay ahead of our adversaries.
During RAITE 2024, the White House released the first-ever National Security Memorandum (NSM) on AI. It specifically addresses gaps in AI safety, security, and trustworthiness where NSWC Crane is working to ensure sailors are ready and prepared for any threat in the future.
“RAITE aims to address test and evaluation gaps, explore new AI/C-AI capabilities, facilitate broad collaboration, and provide warfighters with confidence in the technology. NSWC Crane is helping move the field in a positive direction to enable warfighter trust and safety in AI-enabled systems and provide realistic system test paradigms,” said Fitzsimmons.
Even though RAITE is only in its second year, Fitzsimmons is positive about the future of this effort.
“RAITE will continue to grow and evolve with the AI field,” said Fitzsimmons. “RAITE 2023 consisted of a single event geared towards computer vision while RAITE 2024 consists of computer vision, multi-modal systems, air/ground/water autonomous systems, critical infrastructure, and cyber. Our goal is to provide a highly realistic testing venue for AI/C-AI systems to ensure robust, safe deployment and understand the trajectory of the various fields.”
The event was co-sponsored by the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)).
About NSWC Crane | NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electromagnetic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.
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