The Golden Dome’s AI Elements

There’s effectively a gag order on defense officials that prohibits them from talking about the Golden Dome — President Trump’s massive homeland defense initiative. 

But details are leaking out — and they’re largely what I expected. 

The latest include some AI elements I’ve been talking about for years — like preventative maintenance, logistics, and threat detection/interception. 

The details come via an under-the-radar defense symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, last week. 

Here’s what was discussed…

1. Preventative Maintenance

This is one of the first aspects of AI I ever covered.

The best and most entrenched example is the way it’s deployed by the Air Force.

By using AI to analyze huge volumes of flight data, maintenance logs, and user manuals than any human ever could, the Air Force can predict what subsystems on a fighter jet need to be replaced and when. 

This catches potential malfunctions before they even arise and gives the ground crew a head start to order parts and schedule repairs ahead of time. 

All told, the Air Force has developed more than 440,000 machine learning algorithms and state-of-the-art NLP analytics, and trained 30 classifiers to calculate the probability of failure on high-priority subsystems. (NLP stands for natural language processing, which is a computer program's ability to understand human language as it’s spoken and written.)

Whether it’s the engine, the breaks, air locks, tubes, turbines, tires, afterburners, valves, carburetors… any of the thousands of working pieces on a state-of-the-art fighter jet…

They can predict, almost precisely, what is going to go wrong and when.

In fact, the program was so successful that it was instantly expanded to include more than 20 USAF aircraft platforms, where it continues to collect new data and increase efficiency.

It’s now being used to maintain:

• The UH-60 Black Hawk
• The AH-64 Apache 
• The E-3 Sentry
• The C-5 Galaxy
• The F-16 Fighting Falcon, 
• The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and more.

This same technology will soon be applied to Army and Navy platforms as well — if it hasn't been already.

And it has a clear place in the Golden Dome initiative, ensuring that America’s threat detection and tracking equipment and interceptors are primed and ready at a moment’s notice.

2. Logistics

Similarly, AI can be used to optimize supply chains. 

Again this is something we talk about with respect to AI — not just in the military, but in the private sector as well. 

The reality is that commercial businesses are already using AI to track and analyze the complex chain that runs from production to transportation to inventory to sales.

AI models can plan more efficient delivery routes, find lower-cost input goods, identify what products are selling fastest in what specific stores, determine optimal pricing, and more. 

They can also help manage employee staffing and scheduling.

Again, this could serve the military greatly as it orders, tracks, and deploys equipment, munitions, and personnel.

That could increase operational efficiency with respect to resources and manpower.

3.Threat Detection/Interception

Finally, and most appropriately, there’s the matter of threat detection and interception. 

One of the ways AI revolutionized the battlefield was with its ability to analyze huge pools of intelligence from disparate sources and draw conclusions. 

That is, intelligence comes from a variety of places — satellite imagery, ground radar, ships at sea, intercepted communications, human informants, etc. 

However, gathering and analyzing all of that intelligence is far too tall an order for even the smartest people. 

AI can do it in seconds. 

That’s key to missile defense because if North Korea launches a rocket, America’s defense apparatus has to determine where it’s going and whether it’s a threat or not. It has to do this as quickly as possible and then pass that information up the chain of command before any definitive action is taken. 

That entire task could be made much easier by AI. 

Then there’s the matter of actually intercepting incoming threats. 

That used to be relatively easy, as traditional ICBMs traveled in a relatively predictable arc. 

Of course, that’s no longer the case. Today’s nuclear missiles travel at hypersonic speeds, change course suddenly and unpredictably, and then fracture into dozens of warheads that rain down in a shower of carnage. 

Again, though, AI helps here, because it’s increasingly being used to analyze, model, and predict missile trajectories. 

In a doomsday scenario, it could have to do that on the fly as America scrambles to defend itself from an incoming nuclear attack. 

This is why the Golden Dome is necessary. 

And I’ve got a full report on it here. 

I’ve also delved deeply into President Trump’s AI Victory Plan, which is applying many of these technologies to specific areas of the military.

You can get more information on that here.

Fight on,

Jason Simpkins

Simpkins is the founder and editor of Secret Stock Files, an investment service that focuses on companies with assets — tangible resources and products that can hold and appreciate in value. He covers mining companies, energy companies, defense contractors, dividend payers, commodities, staples, legacies and more… He also serves as editor of The Crow’s Nest where he analyzes investments beyond the scope of the defense sector.

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