The future of war includes balloons

How the next wave of technology is upending the global economy and its power structures

Jul 05, 2022 View in browser   By Lee Hudson With help from Derek Robertson AP Photo We've written quite a bit in DFD about the lengthy process the U.S. military requires to adopt new technologies. Now there's one piece of next-gen tech that's finally getting close to reality: AI-powered balloons that float in the outer edges of the earth's atmosphere. As I reported ina story out today, the Defense Department has handed off the surveillance balloon project to specific service branches, such as the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy or Space Force — a move that usually means they can start using a new technology. The Pentagon's plan? Operationalize the stratosphere. DoD wants to use these balloons to track hypersonic missiles or other long-range munitions that could be fired from China, Iran, North Korea or Russia. The teardrop-shaped balloons fly some 60,000—90,000 feet above the ground. They navigate wind currents using machine-learning algorithms and recharge using solar panels, according to manufacturer Raven Aerostar. One aspect that may be speeding adoption in this case: the new tech is significantly cheaper than anything the military is using right now for high-altitude surveillance. Surveillance planes have flown at those altitudes since the 1950s , but can only fly for hours at a time, instead of months. These balloons can loiter for weeks or months costing only hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate, while obtaining similar information using aircraft or satellites that can cost millions or tens of millions of dollars. Like the drones that have now become so essential to modern warfare, the balloons allow the people operating them to stay safe on the ground. Though long-durationairships have been studied for decades along with high-altitude drones that can fly for weeks at a time, the current project has been in development for just three years. The Pentagon kicked off the new program (called The Covert Long-Dwell Stratospheric Architecture, or COLD STAR) in fiscal year 2019. Some testing of these balloons was reported in 2019 — at that time with the idea of using it to find and track drug traffickers. (And yes, there were some serious questions raised about what data these balloons would be collecting on Americans.) But these also might have a future in warfare itself. The Pentagon is conducting demonstrations to evaluate how to incorporate high-altitude balloons and commercial satellites in attacks. That means they could play a role in helping not just identify hypersonic weapons, but shooting them down. meta-manufacturing The metaverse's social, economic, and even political potential have received a lot of scrutiny since Mark Zuckerberg laid out his vision for it last summer amid Facebook's high-profile rebrand. But what about its potential for manufacturing? Last week European manufacturing giant Siemens announced a partnership with graphics company Nvidia to make digital models of factories that would enable experimentation, using Nvidia's Omniverse platform . As loud as the hype is around VR's potential uses for gaming, shopping, and social media, that kind of behind-the-scenes application might be more immediately useful. (By way of an example, Siemens touts the potential for a "live digital twin" of a utility plant to be analyzed for its thermal distribution — the better to optimize the placement of cooling towers and ventilation.) Companies making major investments in VR tech seem to understand this. XRA, an industry advocacy group founded by Google, Microsoft, Oculus, and others, successfully lobbied for language in the ( now imperiled) USICA tech funding bill that would promote the use of "immersive technology" as a research tool. VR-focused "Reality Caucus" member Rep. Yvette Clarke (D.-N.Y.) has introduced bills that would encourage VR's use in federal workforce training. — Derek Robertson in too deep Getty More news from the other side of the pond: As the EU moves to formalize a massive overhaul of already existing tech regulations, the European Commission is planning for the next wave of tech disruption. POLITICO's Pieter Haeck reports that the commission has come up with 25 "action points" to boost what it calls "deep tech," a catch-all for technological innovation deriving from advances in basic science in everything from artificial intelligence to quantum computing. The Commission's "Innovation Agenda" addresses problems including "access to funding, the hiring of talent, the West-East innovation gap, the lack of room for experimentation and supporting policy tools. "The Commission's report also puts the initiative squarely in the context of the EU's ambitious climate plans, as well as aiming to close the not-insignificant funding and research gap the EU has with the U.S. and China (even as the U.S. deals with its own internal conflicts around tech and innovation funding). The report states that the EU hopes to lure in 45 billion euros (roughly $46 billion) in private capital if all of its goals are reached over the next three years. — Derek Robertson The Future In 5 Links Big Wall Street institutions largely escaped the crypto crash while retail investors got hammered. The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the EU's overhaul of its tech regulations. A Stanford professor argues for proceeding with caution in releasing AI models into the world. The Metaverse Standards Forum is setting specifications for a world that doesn't quite exist yet. Are Americans even buying enough PCs to fuel a chip manufacturing revolution? Stay in touch with the whole team: Ben Schreckinger (bschreckinger@politico.com); Derek Robertson (drobertson@politico.com); Konstantin Kakaes (kkakaes@politico.com);  and Heidi Vogt (hvogt@politico.com). Follow us on Twitter @DigitalFuture. If you've had this newsletter forwarded to you, you can sign up here. And read our mission statement here.   Industry Leaders at One-Day Tech Event on July 21: The American dream is a MerITocracy – powered by policy and technology as they relate to education and workforce, global competitiveness, security and privacy, and citizen services. On July 21, join tech industry visionaries from Dell, Google Cloud, DocuSign, and Consumer Technology Association, in addition to Hill and Biden Administration leaders as they discuss the future of tech innovation, regulation, and outcomes for America at MeriTalk's MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum. Sign up here.       Follow us on Twitter Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports Derek Robertson @afternoondelete Konstantin Kakaes @kkakaes Heidi Vogt @HeidiVogt   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Please click here and follow the steps to unsubscribe.