From July 20 to 21, the Austrian Armed Forces, in cooperation with the Bundeswehr University in Munich, organized a workshop on the topic of “Big Data” at the Rossauer Barracks in Vienna.
Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner: “In order to be able to deal with the future challenges of a modern army, it is necessary to deal intensively with this complex topic. I am therefore very pleased that specialists from our department are working on this topic scientifically.”
The collection, storage, processing, analysis and utilization of large and complex amounts of data (“big data”), which are also available in the armed forces or must be taken into account when preparing and making decisions, can no longer be processed promptly or in real time using conventional hardware and software. “Big data” approaches solve these challenges of structured and unstructured data sets using special hardware and software as well as “management cockpits”. The main issues here are scope, data volume, the speed at which data volumes are generated and transferred, the range of data types and sources, the authenticity of data and added value.
Military action is characterized by long-term, prudent planning and quick decision-making. The workshop therefore dealt with the key questions of what role current developments in artificial intelligence play in these complex decision-making processes and how the various technical possibilities should be evaluated.
The aim was to achieve greater depth in this subject area and build up knowledge. The main new possibilities of artificial intelligence and “big data” with regard to data analysis, fusion and evaluation in a military context for the reconnaissance network were presented in overview lectures. A special feature of this opening workshop was that, in addition to scientific overview presentations, special insights into practice were also presented and, above all, the discourse with experts was sought in the context of selected case studies.
