Ep. 008: Avoiding The Innovation Valley of Death

Warfighter Podcast

This week Colin has been finding all the rust holes on his Landrover chassis, whilst Tom was playing with ChatGPT, and some other AI tools. The results are revealed later in the episode.

This week the format changes slightly as we are joined by two guests from the UK Defence & Security Accelerator (DASA) - Stacey Crump and Tom Adamson. Our guests give us an introduction to the work of the organisation and how they seek to foster innovation and technology that can not only be used to support defence, but also more widely across government and society.

A particular challenge in the field of innovation research and development is taking an initial idea and prototype to adoption by the mass market. This has spawned a number of papers and even a book on the subject. Our guests discuss the approach DASA has taken to try and address the problem, with a number of specific examples and strategies.

DASA is an organisation that funds innovative ideas from any organisation large or small, outside of the UK as well as from within.

As ever we are joined by our intrepid journalist Andy Fawkes from MS&T, who takes us through some of the more recent Training & Simulation developments in the news, including

• Joint India & Japan air exercises
• Continued problems with IVAS XR funding in the US
• Heavy Weapons in Ukraine - the training burden and its implications

Episode Sponsor: Improbable Defence

Improbable Defence is a mission focused technology company working to transform the national security of our nations and their allies in the face of increasing global competition and evolving threats.

Today, national security is defined by technological superiority. We believe that software more than any other capability will redefine how war is fought and who will be on the winning side. Those entrusted with the preservation of our freedom, prosperity and safety deserve the best software-defined capabilities available.

Since the end of the Cold War, the UK, US and their allies have been unchallenged in military technological dominance. Today, we are facing a different reality: our adversaries are seizing the technological edge.

Improbable Defence chooses to stand up and not stand by. We are building cutting-edge software products to help our nations retake the technological advantage. We believe in defending our democratic values against those who seek to undermine them. Supporting those tasked with this mission is at the heart of all we do. We seek to radically transform the mission outcomes of those whose responsibility it is to keep us safe.

Hosts:

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

Guest:

• Stacey Crump: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-crump-6b20072a/
• Tom Adamson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-a-67a50a140/

Links:

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

News Stories Related Links:

International Military Exercises:

• https:/www.halldale.com/articles/20673-indian-and-japanese-air-forces-train-together
• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/avani-chaturvedi-to-be-first-iaf-woman-pilot-to-participate-in-aerial-war-games-abroad/articleshow/96818463.cms
• https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indian-air-force-has-a-shortage-of-405-pilots-centre-101616592744975.html
• https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-warship-armed-with-hypersonic-missiles-join-drills-with-china-safrica-2023-01-23/

Ukraine and Training:

• https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/ukraine-is-lucky-to-have-britains-challenger-2-tanks/
• news.yahoo.com/ukrainians-start-training-challenger-2-213817183.html

US Army IVAS:

• https:/www.xrtoday.com/mixed-reality/the-latest-on-microsofts-ivas-army-headset/
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-18/microsoft-scales-back-hololens-business-after-setback-on-us-army-goggles

US Congress - Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act of 2022:

• https://www.halldale.com/articles/20669-mst-representative-lisa-blunt-rochester-introduces-xr-workforce-bill
• https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/9674/text?r=1&s=1
• https://tass.com/world/1564291
• https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3207675/south-africa-plays-china-and-russia-card-against-us-joint-naval-exercise