Title page 1

Contents 4

Executive Summary 2

Overview and Introduction 5

The Drive for Military AI-Enabled Decision Support Systems (AI-DSS) 7

Military Need 7

Evidence of AI-DSS Adoption 8

Scaling AI-DSS 8

Understanding AI-DSS 10

Operational-Level Tasks Ripe for AI-DSS 16

An AI-DSS for Keeping Army Fires Units Supplied with Ammunition 17

Applying an AI-DSS to the Joint Air Tasking Cycle 20

Stage 2: Target Development & Nomination 27

Stage 3: Weaponeering & Allocation 28

Sub-Stage 3A: Weaponeering 28

Sub-Stage 3B: Allocation 29

Stage 4: ATO Production & Dissemination 29

Expected Operational Benefits of AI-DSS 32

Benefits of AI-DSS Support to Army Fires Resupply 32

Benefits of AI-DSS Support for JATC 33

Manpower Efficiencies 33

Process Speed-up 34

Improved Process Flexibility 34

Expected Operational Risks 35

Implementation Challenges 38

Software Development 38

Data Access 39

Integration 41

Potential Next Steps 43

Conclusion 46

Appendix A: Joint and Air Force Depictions of the Air Tasking Cycle 49

Appendix B: Air Force Digital Tools Supporting the Air Tasking Cycle 53

Appendix C: Commercial Sector Delivery Scheduling 55

Appendix D: Acronyms 56

Authors 60

Acknowledgments 60

Endnotes 61

Table 1. Functions that define an AI-DSS 11

Table 2. Army Fires Unit Ammunition Supply Process 18

Table 3. Stages of the Joint Air Tasking Cycle process 24

Table 4. Benefits and Risks of AI-DSS in Two Case Studies 46

Figure A. Self-Reinforcement Cycle of AI-DSS 15

Figure 1. Joint Air Tasking Cycle (JATC) 20

Figure 2. The Notional Joint Air Tasking Cycle Timeline 23

Figure A-1. The Notional Joint Air Tasking Cycle Timeline 50

Figure A-2. Air Tasking Cycle Representative Timeline 51