What Macron’s France architects on artificial intelligence, nuclear and cyber intelligence
The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
France is able to keep up with the pace imposed by the great powers in the race for disruptive technologies, some of which have just reached a new level (artificial intelligence or AI, hyper-fast missiles, direct energy weapons, etc.) while others are still at the theoretical stage (quantum physics)?
Will the French industrial and technological defense base (BITD) be able to bring together and master the necessary skills in the field of disruptive technologies?
What will the battlefield of the future be like?
France is still in the running – underline some analysts close to the French intelligence that we have heard – but it will have to increase its budget to give itself on the one hand the means to succeed in its industrial bet and on the other hand to maintain strategic autonomy and decision-making capacity.
The United States and China, the two world military heavyweights, seem unattainable as their financial capabilities are beyond France's reach. Paris has steadfastly turned to more funding for disruptive technologies that will allow it to keep the upper hand over its opponents.
Nuclear weapons have given France a decisive weight in the world order, both diplomatic and military. Let us not forget that with Brexit, France becomes the first military nuclear power of the European Union.
The President of the Republic, during a speech at the Ecole de Guerre last February , recalled the pre-eminent role of France, by virtue of nuclear weapons, its ability to defend itself if its interests were threatened, but also the need to build a common strategic doctrine within the Union. If the French nuclear weapon is used by all of Europe, the effort of the countries of the Union will only have to be greater. Emmanuel Macron, however, offered "to those who wish", collaborations including exercises of the deterrent forces. A beginning of the program, the outlines of which, however, remain very vague.
The nine nuclear-armed countries are modernizing their arsenals. France is no exception to this rule. The Military Planning Law (LPM) allocates a budget of 25 billion euros for the period 2019-2023. The aerial component of nuclear weapons is expected, from 2035, to develop a hypersonic missile aboard a fighter aircraft, stealth drone or jumbo.
The deployment of the nuclear weapon could therefore be carried out thanks to hyper-speeding missiles, in fact hypersonic, that is, sailing at least at Mach 5. The development of this military instrument will give those who control it an incredible advantage against their opponents. For the time being, only Russia would have such a weapon: the Avangard missile. This can carry conventional, but mostly nuclear, cargoes. Sailing at Mach 20, he would not have given his opponent a chance.
Russia is not the only power working on these hyper-fast missiles and the announcement of the Avangard operating conditions has restarted work in several countries. This is the case in particular of the United States with the Conventional Prompt Global Strike, of China, India and France with the ASN4G nuclear air-to-surface missile.
France has an advantage in Europe thanks to the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research (ONERA).
Vladimir Putin said: "Whoever masters artificial intelligence will dominate the world". Russia has launched massive AI research and development programs, but it is not alone. The United States and China are working to integrate AI through various robotic and armed weapons and combat systems. Advances have been spectacular, especially in deep learning, which allows machines to learn from huge amounts of data. However, even the most experienced researchers still cannot explain the "black box" phenomenon, that is, they are unable to judge the data that goes into the box as well as the results that come out, but without knowing what lies behind it. .
In this race, France is not left behind by the three great powers of AI. Its strengths: applied mathematics and computer science, two areas in which it excels thanks to its universities and research centers.
In 2018, Cédric Villani gave the President of the Republic a report that served as the basis for his AI program. But while France has many strengths, they also have serious handicaps. For example, it doesn't have a large digital group. Bruno Le Maire then explained: “Artificial intelligence is a very vast subject, which requires considerable resources. We certainly have strengths in this sector, but these are contested by the big names ". An observation shared by economists, including Christian Saint-Étienne, who recently indicated that the new industrial revolution (NRI) has brought us into a 3.0 economy.
However, France and Europe don't weigh much against the American and Chinese giants, unless there is a collective surge spurred on by the European Commission in the short term.
To his claim on artificial intelligence, Vladimir Putin could have added the vast realm of cyber. Russia is a past master in this art of asymmetrical warfare. France started late, but seems to make up for the lost distance. General Lecointre, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (CEMA), indicated that his offensive and defensive capabilities were "excellent". France also won the international cyber defense exercise "Locked Shields 2019", organized by NATO and which brought together 30 countries. The Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, has thus warned countries or small groups that will try to attack France with cyber weapons: the French doctrine is not only defensive and its cybersoldiers are able to launch counterattacks in two key areas: support for conventional operations and neutralization of an enemy.
In an interview Emmanuel Chiva, director of the Defense Innovation Agency, noted the emergence of technological breakthroughs that generate strategic breakthroughs. Among them, quantum sensors. It is therefore imperative to take an interest in it, especially as France has courses of excellence in this field, in mathematics and physics. The field of possibilities is immense. Quantum is a question of national, technological and economic sovereignty that should consolidate the industrial fabric of France, but also of Europe.
In the field of direct energy weapons – the laser – the United States and China dominate the debates. The US Navy and US Army are developing lasers and microwaves capable of neutralizing enemy weapons and systems (drones). The advantage – the extremely low cost of such a weapon.
France lagged behind in this area. However, he can count on the CILAS company, which is already working on the Laser Mégajoule. CILAS should design lasers for space defense. Like the Americans, this subsidiary of Ariane Group and Areva works with lasers fired from the ground or from an onboard weapon.
Regarding nanotechnologies, France has launched the Nano 2022 plan. The goal is to continue to master some technologies, but also to maintain strategic players in France and Europe, such as STMicroelectronics.
Finally, in the field of neuroscience, France occupies an honorable seventh place in the world and third place in Europe, behind the United Kingdom and Germany. Neurology, neuroscience, cognitive science, the research field is broad. The French Man Machine Teaming project aims to develop a cognitive aerial system. This initiative is funded by the French Armaments Directorate (DGA) and led by Dassault Aviation and Thales. The pilots will then be able to interact and communicate with an AI. This type of system is a very important component of the European SCAF (Future Combat System) hunting project.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/che-cosa-architetta-la-francia-di-macron-su-intelligenza-artificiale-nucleare-e-cyber/ on Sat, 05 Jun 2021 07:53:31 +0000.