The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is seeking generative artificial intelligence technologies to help the military with planning processes, according to an Aug. 23 solicitation to industry.
DIU is making the solicitation through its “Thunderforge Area of Interest (AoI): Generative AI for Joint Planning” effort.
Responses to the solicitation are due Sept. 6.
In the solicitation, DIU said it wants AI tech to “augment human planners and command staff by rapidly processing information, producing draft planning products, and ultimately aiding in generating options.”
According to DIU, the AI tech should be able to address the increasing need to process data quickly and efficiently. This requires a system that can identify key insights, data patterns and relationships, draft operation plans and operations orders, and adapt to “denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments” – operational environments where availability and reliability of networks or systems are compromised.
“The joint planning process is complex, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. Planners and other staff members must synthesize large amounts of information from diverse sources, consider multiple courses of action (COA), and produce detailed operational plans and orders – often under significant time pressure. As the operational environment becomes more complex and dynamic, there is a need to accelerate and enhance joint planning capabilities while maintaining rigor and human judgment,” the solicitation stated.
The AI must be able to operate on data from “diverse source modalities and data formats,” the solicitation also says.
Other uses for the system include wargaming, which the DoD said would help with operational planning by rapidly generating possible actions based on restraints, identifying advantages and disadvantages, and supporting sensitivity analysis. The system would also be required to allow for human oversight to easily review and modify what the AI system produces.
DIU said applicants must have experience deploying on classified networks and personnel who have security clearances, noting that “preference will be given to companies whose solutions have been deployed on IL6 or higher, or have an equivalent Authority to Operate (ATO).” Applicant companies may also apply in partnership with other companies or individually.
Contracting companies that have technology that fits DIU’s system requirements are eligible to receive a follow-on production contract, the DoD said.
“The follow-on production contract or transaction will be available for use by one or more organizations in the Department of Defense and, as a result, the magnitude of the follow-on production contract or agreement could be significantly larger than that of the prototype OT,” the solicitation states.
