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Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
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3

Recommendations

SUMMARY LIST OF FINDINGS

The following findings and conclusions are used as the basis for the recommendations that follow. While each of these findings is derived from different analyses, they form the basis for multiple recommendations. These findings are taken directly from the discussion in Chapter 2 and are replicated here for the reader’s convenience. For contextual discussion, please refer to the appropriate section.

Finding 1: The explosion of data creation, sharing, and use, including data analytics to support near-real-time decision making, will drive an increase in demand for energy.

Finding 2: The increase in demand for energy will influence the energy supply chain and accompanying logistics.

Finding 3: Cloud computing enables highly distributed and mobile information technology (IT) that is very powerful.

Finding 4: Back-end data centers require an enormous amount of energy, are fixed sites, and are potentially a target during wartime, both physically and virtually.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Finding 5: The integration of smart devices into the tactical edge is resulting in a very large increase in data generated at the tactical edge. As the amount of data being produced increases, the bandwidth required to transmit it back to off-premise computational centers will also increase.

Finding 6: Reliance on communications between tactical-edge centers and off-premise data centers is a vulnerability that could be exploited by an adversary.

Finding 7: The reversal of data flows to and from the tactical edge will force the movement of computational devices to the tactical edge, which will profoundly affect the energy supply chain requirements.

Finding 8: Movement of electricity to power data-driven operations at the tactical edge is a critical need that is more complicated than moving petroleum products.

Finding 9: Highly distributed small devices require energy to operate. The form of that energy can pose challenges unless the supply of energy is logistics-friendly.

Finding 10: Small devices spread across a deployed force may need to have separately powered transmission capabilities.

Finding 11: Storing energy in environmentally appropriate ways and keeping the devices operational through managing the environmental characteristics is a necessary and important analytical element.

Finding 12: Adversaries will target both data capabilities and communications, including the energy used to power such capabilities.

Finding 13: The energy needs for deployed forces operating within the Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) construct will require solutions that are not likely to come from the commercial sector.

Finding 14: There will be energy needs associated with the proliferation of smart devices, artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and unmanned systems.

Finding 15: Portable energy technologies are advancing in capabilities from both commercial and government research and development (R&D) investments.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Finding 16: The initial deployment of a unit to the tactical edge will include energy that originates from the fixed installations, including energy from commercial energy provider partners.

Finding 17: Tactical-edge operational needs are driving the adoption of advanced computational capabilities, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). There are significant energy considerations associated with AI and ML that derive from the sensitivity of electronic components, the human-machine interface requirements, and the increased integration of sensors.

Finding 18: The energy needs associated with Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) for tactical-edge data operations will be significant but are as of yet not totally understood.

Finding 19: Resource readiness is affected when the unit does not have the resources needed to execute the mission.

Finding 20: Capability readiness is affected when the unit does not have the data needed to support the full-spectrum mission.

Finding 21: In determining the requirements for new systems, be that combat or combat support, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has not directed the need for energy minimization, energy consumption monitoring, or power generation as part of the system requirements.

Finding 22: Delivering energy to small units becomes a critical need for the overall system.

Finding 23: There is a trend toward optimizing energy efficiency of computing hardware by specializing to computing chip platforms tailored to neural network machine learning.

Finding 24: Mission-specific applications require further processor development to realize similar gains in reducing processing time and energy requirements.

Finding 25: Algorithm advances that can perform with less training data would have potential advantages both in the number of application areas where they could be deployed and in the potential energy requirements for training the algorithms.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Finding 26: Clever algorithm design can yield orders of magnitude of energy savings for computer energy consumption.

Finding 27: Operational constraints, such as communication capability and speed requirements for data-driven decisions, cause situations where advanced data processing must take place at the tactical edge. Deploying these types of capabilities to the tactical edge requires an architectural approach that optimizes design constraints to minimize power usage while delivering very fast processing on-premise.

Finding 28: Modifying how computational systems execute instructions can reduce energy usage of the system.

Finding 29: Reducing the energy used in computation also reduces the amount of heat generated, which not only affects the amount of energy needed for environmental controls but also affects the operational heat signature of deployed units.

Finding 30: There is a relationship between the software use profiles and the hardware architecture of small devices that affects battery life between charges.

Finding 31: Collecting rich data at the tactical edge means that some capability for big data processing exists at the tactical edge. Big data processing at the tactical edge requires adequate energy.

Finding 32: Dependence on conventional cloud computing solutions is not a viable solution for every tactical situation and therefore cannot be the sole solution to the data-driven operational problems. The development of portable data centers may provide an intermediate solution.

Finding 33: Variety in data types increases communication bandwidth needs, which increases energy needed for communication.

Finding 34: Data fusion that integrates many different types of data requires careful consideration and engineering to minimize energy used in the fusion process.

Finding 35: The data architecture may become a dominant factor in determining energy needs for data-driven operation.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Finding 36: A system-level requirements process for data acquisition, communications, and processing is likely required to achieve the desired data-driven operations capabilities.

Finding 37: There is a need for deployable personnel to set up, manage, maintain, and optimize the energy support for tactical-edge computational systems.

Finding 38: There is a shortage of trained personnel in electrical engineering and data center support operations.

Finding 39: Owing to the design needs of tactical-edge computational systems, it is likely that there will be a need for science and technology (S&T) investment.

Finding 40: The U.S. Air Force does not have the organic manpower to manage, lead, supervise, or solve the challenges associated with the design, operation, and management of energy consumption associated with data-driven operations.

Finding 41: There is a gap between current technologies and planned capabilities for collaborative data-driven decisions.

Finding 42: Distributed Energy Resources (DER) based on renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, have become a viable technology for deployed microgrids.

Finding 43: Distributed Energy Resources (DER) at the tactical edge have been in the form of diesel generators, batteries, and other forms of local electric power generation. The use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, or thermal has been limited owing to the cost of deployment and the fact that they are generally not “hardened” against physical damage during conflict.

Finding 44: Innovating integration of multiple-source energy generation and storage capability can increase resiliency at the tactical edge.

Finding 45: The increasing use of electric vehicles combined with deployed energy generation systems creates the potential for the innovative system integration of those two elements into a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability.

Finding 46: The transportation of energy to the tactical edge is a recognized target for adversaries.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Finding 47: The reality of cyberattacks against energy infrastructure is that the number and severity of attacks are growing. Even if not aimed directly at the energy infrastructure, the effects of a cyberattack may affect it adversely.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the preceding findings, the committee reached additional conclusions separate from the actual findings and that informed the development of the recommendations.

The reliance on actionable data at the tactical edge combined with communications vulnerabilities will require that some capability for on-premise computational support be located at the tactical edge. The Air Force must design a forward-looking strategy for energy supply to the tactical edge computing devices that anticipates advances in technologies. As JADO planning continues, specific focus on energy needs for on-premise data support to deployed units and weapon systems must be considered. The energy needs for these devices should be included explicitly in requirement specifications and the deployment planning efforts. The need to power transmission capabilities associated with an abundance of small devices spread across deployed forces requires supply chain consideration over and above the power issues associated with the devices themselves.

Solutions to the energy supply challenges must be designed to reduce risk to the force and to the mission. The USAF should actively engage with start-ups, research groups, and others working on next-generation products and services that support the broad energy market in order to provide funding for solutions with protection built in. The programmatic challenges associated with designing, budgeting for, developing, acquiring, and operating robust and reliable systems with fewer exploitable vulnerabilities will require significant leadership engagement. Providing appropriate environmental controls for both energy storage and device usage is likely to require more energy, not less.

The ability of a unit to deploy to the tactical edge with appropriate energy supplies is dependent at deployment on the originating installation’s ability to provide adequate deployable energy resources. Therefore, the energy needs analysis of the deployed unit at the tactical edge must include the initial energy deployment stock from the originating installation. The energy needs for tactical deployed AI and ML capabilities must be part of the logistics support planning for deployment. Opting for devices that use interchangeable power sources (e.g., battery size) or the same type of power source are two of many possible solutions.

Lack of adequate energy at the tactical edge to power computational and communications devices reduces the readiness of a unit to execute the mission. The use of alternative methods for energy delivery, such as using small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) to deliver batteries to tactical edge units, should be considered and analyzed.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

In assessing energy needs associated with tactical edge use of ML applications, data architecture plans must take into account the details of data flows, algorithms, and computing platforms. Energy-aware software algorithms will require rethinking both software algorithms and the hardware they are paired with. Currently, these two aspects of a computational system are largely decoupled. There has also been research focused on the application side of energy-aware numerical algorithms, particular centered on various forms of neural networks. The largest energy savings are realized when an integrated approach is used that includes the intended application, computer hardware, and software algorithm design.

The design of on-premise tactical-edge computational support is a challenge that is probably not met by off-the-shelf systems. There are variations in use cases that will impact requirements for systems. These variations in use cases, and the associated data and algorithmic processing requirements, will need to be enumerated. There is no obvious technical solution that would meet all conceivable use cases, particularly considering constraints associated with size, weight, power, ruggedness, and environmental resilience.

When planning information architectures for deployable units, the fit between small device hardware and software is an important part of energy needs analyses. Data architectures for tactical-edge computing should be a consideration for energy logistics analyses. An enterprise architecture should be developed that demonstrates the ability to support the planned needs.

There must be organic manpower within the Air Force to lead and manage the energy consumption that is needed for data-driven operations. The manpower needs for current and future energy support to the tactical-edge computing infrastructure require immediate analysis and planning in order to support future operational capabilities.

As the demand for more computer systems increases, DER may be a viable solution to meeting a military installation’s future increasing electric power needs without increasing the amount of commercial power brought into the installation. Additional R&D is necessary to develop deployable DER capabilities beyond diesel generators and batteries that focus on renewable energy sources. The potential contribution of V2G approaches may assist in the management of available energy and operational reserves in deployed tactical-edge units. Diversifying energy generation and sources can contribute to resiliency consideration.

Reducing the number, signature, and exposure of energy supply convoys may have some benefits in terms of reducing casualty rates but does raise the issue of how energy will be provided to the tactical edge. Protecting the supply chain of energy in order to ensure adequate and on-demand energy availability at the tactical edge must include cybersecurity of the entire energy supply chain.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

RECOMMENDATIONS

The committee consulted with technical experts in academia, government, and industry to identify challenges and issues associated with energy needs at the tactical edge as well as any potential for solutions to be considered in the future to help address these challenges. These include manpower, research, and expertise requirements needed for the future energy environment.

Energy Needs and Readiness

The core of these recommendations falls under the issue of how much energy will be needed for functionality of data processing and support to combat operations at the tactical edge. Fundamentally, the answer to this question is not currently comprehensively known. Plans are under way for advanced operational capabilities, including dynamic basing and JADO. It stands to reason that an obvious recommendation would be that the energy needs associated with data processing to support these missions be systematically analyzed and documented.

Recommendation 1: The U.S. Air Force must include energy needs in readiness reporting metrics for all weapons systems.

Concomitant to a comprehensive analysis of the energy needs associated with data processing at the tactical edge, it is important to understand the impacts of energy availability to these functions and what the impact would be to larger mission functions and weapons systems should the energy needs not be met, either at all or in a timely manner. The impact on operations associated with a temporary or sustained loss of power to data capabilities at the tactical edge must be understood, ranging from logistics to management to enabling effects on target. The ability of units to execute mission requirements can be greatly undermined by the inability to collect, process, analyze, and communicate critical data, thereby impacting both unit and mission readiness.

Recommendation 2: In the emerging data-driven operational environment, the U.S. Air Force resource and capability readiness assessments should include the availability of adequate and appropriate energy to data capabilities at the tactical edge.

Pull-the-Plug Exercises in Field Tests

Field exercises and training often assume that power is available at all times and for any demand requirement. This is also a standard assumption for communica-

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

tions systems, networks, and other support infrastructures. In a forward-deployed situation or in a contested battle space, it should be expected that power and other infrastructures will be targets of attack and therefore will not be continuously available or will be intermittent. Losses may stem from existing poor commercial infrastructure or enemy denial, lack of maintenance, lack of fuel, or human error. To simulate a realistic future environment, the USAF must include a “lights out” situation in training and exercises. These pull-the-plug exercises for tactical units and dynamic basing can reveal dependencies associated with expectations of data availability to the tactical-edge missions.

Recommendation 3: The U.S. Air Force should conduct pull-the-plug exercises for all realistic field exercises, and the effect on tactical-edge data expectations should be documented and relayed to the mission plan developers.

Recommendation 4: The results of pull-the-plug exercises on tactical-edge data capabilities should be used to revise and update mission readiness assessments.

Energy Needs as Explicit Requirements for All Systems

At present, energy needs for computational support, either on-premise or off-premise, are not defined in any major weapons system or mission profile. The use of both advanced information technology (IT) capabilities, such as AI, and massively distributed small devices and communications nodes, impact the energy needs at the tactical edge and have implications for the operational readiness of both missions and weapon systems. These energy needs must be defined as requirements for all missions and systems.

Recommendation 5: The U.S. Air Force should include energy needs associated with data expectations, both for support and internal to the mission or system, as explicit requirements for all missions and systems. The terms and conditions for contracts should include language that requires specific and complete descriptions of energy needs, types, and compatibility with logistics support.

Recommendation 6: The U.S. Air Force should explicitly address energy minimization, power consumption monitoring, and energy generation for the tactical-edge information environment, including all small devices and Internet of Things capabilities.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Manpower

The manpower skill sets needed to support the energy needs associated with the compute/store functions dispersed across the tactical, operational, and strategic level of warfare, is significant and is a barrier to the successful implementation of data-driven operations. The U.S. Air Force does not have the organic manpower to manage, lead, supervise, or solve the challenges of energy consumption tied to data-driven operations. Without the organic manpower that understands the entire spectrum of energy needs, the Air Force may never achieve a solution that strengthens its operational goals and instead will subject itself to substantial tactical, operational, and strategic risk. This manpower challenge includes recruiting, educating, training, optimizing the contractor/military blend, and incentives for education.

Recommendation 7: The U.S. Air Force should establish a manpower program to recruit, educate, assign, and train both military and civilian personnel to address energy challenges associated with data-driven operations.

Recommendation 8: The U.S. Air Force should incentivize energy engineers, particularly specialists such as antenna and radio frequency engineers.

Energy Resilience

The challenge of delivering energy to deployed forces is complicated by logistics, which tend to favor simplicity over complexity and large users over small users. At the tactical edge, small users may have a larger role in data collection, analysis, and communication under the JADO concepts, which would make them a dependency for the operational readiness of the larger units.

Recommendation 9: The U.S. Air Force should develop an economic benefit model exploring the utility, opportunity costs, risks, and benefits for different energy delivery modes.

The increasing use of electric-powered vehicles provides an opportunity to explore alternative methods of harvesting, storing, and reusing power.

Recommendation 10: The U.S. Air Force should explore the options associated with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) implementations in tactical field exercises.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

Recommendation 11: The U.S. Air Force should consider the logistics tail for energy types and methods of delivery from the perspective of cost-efficiency of energy delivery and operational costs associated with single energy sourcing (e.g., using drones to deliver batteries to small users, as opposed to conventional fuel convoys).

Interoperability

While technology interoperability of deployed American forces in foreign countries is a well understood problem, these issues must be a specified consideration when developing or procuring new power sources or distribution systems. Ideally, new systems should automatically adapt and interoperate with a foreign environment with little or no mechanical switching or reconfiguration.

Recommendation 12: The U.S. Air Force should consider interoperability with foreign nation power systems and partner military forces (e.g., the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) when designing power systems (more than transformers), including standardization of certain elements and “plug and play” capability.

Research

As data-driven operations become more critical to operating concepts, the energy implications should be explicitly part of the planning process, including research on how to reduce energy usage, energy source exposure to hostile activity, and improving energy resiliency.

Recommendation 13: The U.S. Air Force should invest in future research in both product and process technologies associated with reducing energy usage, minimizing energy logistics risk, and improving energy resiliencies associated with data operations at the tactical edge.

Algorithms and application space to reduce energy consumption have been shown to be very promising. Research has been performed to create energy consumption-aware algorithms at the operating system level and the application level, and it appears that this line of work has great potential for reducing energy needs for computing systems operating at the tactical edge. While it is known that clever algorithm design can yield energy savings, there is still more research that needs to be performed to yield practical and deployed energy-aware algorithms. Needed

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

research includes conversion of theoretical algorithms to practical deployable software. In addition, further research is needed on the role of approximation techniques to reduce energy usage while not compromising accuracy.

Recommendation 14: The U.S. Air Force should invest in research into using energy-aware algorithms in practical deployable software.

Recommendation 15: The U.S. Air Force should invest in the development of approximation techniques in software algorithms that are effective in energy reduction without compromising accuracy to unacceptable levels.

Recommendation 16: The U.S. Air Force should conduct experimental campaigns in realistic scenarios, including variety of systems and deployment characteristics of tactical-edge units, to guide the research directions and implementation potentials.

PRIORITIZATION

While all of the recommendations made are important, there are different time horizons associated with each. The committee has identified some that are most important for near-term consideration and others that are longer term needs. The prioritization of these recommendations is based on what can be done quickly, what can make a significant difference quickly, and what actions take longer to establish and get operational. For example, it takes a long time to establish a research effort: funding must be identified, research priorities must be agreed on, and relationships with researchers need to be established. Other things can happen much more quickly. For example, changing the readiness reporting can be done relatively quickly, as well as instituting pull-the-plug exercises.

  • In the near term, Recommendation 1, Recommendation 2, Recommendation 3, Recommendation 4, Recommendation 5, Recommendation 8, and Recommendation 16 are priorities.
  • The recommendations that should be mid-term priorities are Recommendation 7, Recommendation 6, Recommendation 9, Recommendation 10, Recommendation 11, and Recommendation 12.
  • In the long term, Recommendation 13, Recommendation 14, and Recommendation 15 should be prioritized.
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The data infrastructure is evolving so quickly and being integrated so tightly in so many aspects of warfighting operations that it is of an importance equivalent to a major weapon system. But it is infinitely more complex than a single major weapon system. Small issues, such as energy supply to small handheld devices at the tactical edge, have the potential to serve as single points of failure with outsized consequences to overall capability. Early consideration of the entirety of the system and interactions can pay great benefits in the long run.

Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 58
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 59
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 60
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 61
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 62
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 63
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 64
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 65
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 66
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 67
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 68
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
Page 69
Suggested Citation:"3 Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge: Challenges and Concerns. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26183.
×
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Significant efforts are ongoing within the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to improve national security and competitiveness by harnessing the growing power of information technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Product and process technologies are being researched, experimented with, and integrated into future warfighting concepts and plans. A significant part of this effort is focused on integrating operations, from the strategic to the tactical and across all lines of effort. A question that must be asked in considering these future warfighting concepts is: how will the devices that enable the knowledge-based future be powered? The abundant energy supplies that characterize peacetime operating environments may not be readily available at the far reaches of the force projections - the tactical edge - during conflict. Understanding the energy challenges associated with continued data collection, processing, storage, analysis, and communications at the tactical edge is an important part of developing the plans for meeting the future competition on the battlefield.

This report identifies challenges and issues associated with energy needs at the tactical edge as well as any potential for solutions to be considered in the future to help address these challenges. The recommendations of Energizing Data-Driven Operations at the Tactical Edge address understanding these requirement needs and the cascading effects of not meeting those needs, integrating energy needs for data processing into mission and unit readiness assessments, and research into product and process technologies to address energy-efficient computation, resilience, interoperability, and alternative solutions to energy management at the tactical edge.

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