The Defense Department’s office charged with monitoring the health of the defense industrial base (DIB) is seeking public input on how it can enable the vendors, and their suppliers, that provide it with products and services to keep adopting artificial intelligence for defense applications and systems.
The feedback will help DoD understand what resources the DIB needs to integrate AI into defense systems and to help the Office of Industrial Base Resilience’s policy and analysis shop develop a Trusted AI Defense Industrial Base Roadmap that will help contractors and suppliers understand where to apply AI in the near and long-terms, the Office of Industrial Base Resilience says in a Notice of Availability published in the May 22 Federal Register. Responses are due by July 22.
The requested input stems from two previous presidential executive orders, one on the need for a resilient supply chain and the other on the safe and responsible use of AI, the recent National Defense Industrial Strategy, and a data and AI strategy released by the DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.
The Office of Industrial Base Resilience, which is organized within the assistant secretary of defense for Industrial Base Policy, wants answers to 13 questions within the categories of infrastructure and supply chain resilience, workforce, innovation, and the acquisition, policy, and regulatory environment.
For example, in the innovation category the office wants to know if companies have intellectual property concerns around the development of AI-enabled defense systems and how DoD can address these. And under the acquisition, policy, and regulatory category, the office is asking for incentives and mechanisms to foster investment in AI, and what barriers need to be addressed to enable adoption of AI.
“The Department recognizes the importance of investing in the DIB’s ability to incorporate AI into the design, development, operations, maintenance, and support of defense systems,” the notice says.