Establishing a Mature AI Regime
The Navy is currently piloting AI-enabled tools for maintenance forecasting, decision support, maritime domain awareness and kill-web management. Elsewhere, the systems aren’t fully integrated: fleet training cycles, certification assessments, destructive behavior trend analysis and material readiness processes.
“Treating AI and advanced manufacturing as experimental rather than foundational has constrained their value and slowed adoption,” reads the Fighting Instructions. “To meet the demands of future conflict, the Navy and the accompanying industrial base must embed AI into core naval functions and normalize advanced manufacturing as a scalable operational capability.”
Caudle would like to see AI perform trend analysis across the Navy and the joint force, identifying needed focus areas and risks to sailors. To that end, he said he wants to better understand Army Vantage, that branch’s data-driven operations platform, and explore new AI use cases.
WATCH: These data trends will determine your agency’s AI future.
Replicating what works for the Army would allow leadership to ask probabilistic questions about the Navy at every echelon for a holistic view of readiness and resilience.
A mature AI regime will ensure sailors and civilian employees aren’t wasting time on easily reproducible work.
“We're going to get there; I'm behind it, okay?” Caudle said. “I share the secretary of [Defense]'s impetus on getting this done at speed.”
