ISR
The overarching purpose of SAPIENT is to provide teams with automatic, intelligent guidance in operations.
inherent to older situational awareness systems. Rather than indiscriminately sending reams of data back to headquarters, then expecting humans to sift through it, SAPIENT instead uses AI to decide what really matters – only providing troops with truly actionable information. That’s echoed by a related automated function, which uses AI to make decisions on the spot.
By way of example, it could mean that a camera or sensor chooses to zoom in on a particular enemy position, providing intelligence officers with more robust guidance automatically. That’s twinned with other gadgets, which help minimise the risk of false alarms, and which correlate what a SAPIENT-linked sensor is saying. At its best, in short, Thomas says that Dstl’s work means operators have “key information about the unfolding scenario” – allowing them to make decisions faster and with more accuracy. If that wasn’t impressive enough, moreover, SAPIENT also boasts an open architecture, making it easy to integrate across a number of different sensors. Considering the complexity of modern joint arms militaries, and the fact that organisations like the US Army hire literally thousands of external contractors, this is probably wise. At the same time, Thomas notes that flexibility means systems can be sharpened at speed, allowing operators to combat “rapidly-advancing threats and enabling adoption of improved technology”. Even better, it doesn’t lock the MoD into working with particular vendors.
Simplicity and reliability The real-world practicality of SAPIENT’s open architecture was obvious in 2021, when it was used at Nato’s C-UAS Technical Interoperability Exercise (TIE) in the Netherlands. Apart from demonstrating the simplicity of SAPIENT to suppliers – Thomas reports that implementing the platform into their equipment was “straightforward”
– it has also helped developers hone their product even further. Among other things, Dstl worked with the British Standards Institute and industry partners to develop BSI Flex 335 – a British Standard version of SAPIENT released in July. This move is intended to broaden the appeal of SAPIENT beyond defence and includes the adoption of Google’s ‘protobuf’ serialisation protocol, a data format that offers lower bandwidth usage and backwards compatibility. 2022’s TIE meetup, again in the Netherlands, proved the wisdom of these changes: 40 different systems were integrated using SAPIENT, while Nato is adopting the platform as one of its C-UAS standards.
“[Police forces will soon have access to] a multi- modality sensor, effector and decision-making suite. [That] creates a supplier marketplace that benefits the MoD’s procurement activities.”
Not that Thomas and his fellow developers are happy to sit back just yet. As part of SAPIENT’s original aspiration to straddle military and civilian life, Dstl has been working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, as well as the Home Office, to integrate new technology into their own capabilities. Similar relationships with equipment suppliers have been formed as well, meaning that police forces across the UK will soon have access to what Thomas calls a “multi-modality sensor, effector and decision-making suite” compatible with SAPIENT. That, he adds, “creates a supplier marketplace that benefits the MoD’s procurement activities”. Together with other schemes, notably the opening up SAPIENT to other areas of the public and private sectors, it’s hard not to feel that Dstl’s invention is here to stay. If only the Iron Duke himself was around to see it happen. ●
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
$28m
The amount Ukraine spent between 13 September to 17 October 2022 on defeating Russian drones.
Molfar 23
Gorodenkoff/
Shutterstock.com
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