The U.S. Army has signed a contract with the startup company TurbineOne to equip its infantry with software developed by the company to assist in identifying drones and other threats, even in the event of signal interference. Tasks that used to take 20 hours can now be completed within 20 seconds with this software.
The U.S. Army has signed a $98.9 million contract with TurbineOne, a company established only 4 years ago and headquartered in San Francisco. The goal is to process data 10 to 25 times faster than the competition, a crucial advantage on the battlefield.
This contract reflects two realities of modern warfare: drones and artificial intelligence (AI) have accelerated combat operations to astonishing speeds, while pervasive signal interference has made frontline data transmission increasingly challenging.
TurbineOne’s software can be deployed on soldiers’ laptops, smartphones, and drones without the need for stable cloud connections. This AI application allows every soldier to quickly identify enemy threats, such as drone launch sites or hidden enemy positions, and provides situational information on how to respond to enemy forces without relying on analysts miles away.
Army senior official Andrew Evans stated that TurbineOne’s software is part of this transformation. This demonstrates the military’s proactive approach in introducing the technology of emerging and untested startups to address future conflicts drastically different from past wars. Starting with infantry and cavalry units, the Army will gradually introduce TurbineOne to various units, conduct stress tests on the software, and collect feedback.
Evans explained that tasks that previously took 20 hours to complete, such as screening images of hundreds of square miles of terrain, can now be done in 20 seconds with TurbineOne. This software can operate with various language models. In July, the U.S. Department of Defense signed contracts with model developers like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Google.
TurbineOne CEO Ian Kalin stated that during the collaboration with the U.S. Army, TurbineOne made over 200 software adjustments based on user feedback within a week.
In modern battlefields, unmanned drones are ubiquitous in the air, water, and ground, providing endless surveillance and overwhelming data for soldiers to sift through within seconds to identify the most immediate threats and decide on response tactics.
TurbineOne’s AI analyzes a vast amount of data from sources such as infrared images, radar, radio signals, and other sources. Soldiers can request the system to detect general types of threats, such as any airborne drones, as well as specific threats, such as a specific model of tank equipped with particular weapons.
After issuing a query command, the system provides information on relevant threats and risk assessments, continually updating soldiers and their AI-equipped weapons, such as drones, as the targets move or change.
The selection of software that processes all data on the device reflects the lessons learned by the U.S. Army from the war in Ukraine: future wars will be conducted under communication paralysis, where radios and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) will fail due to the spread of jammers.
Evans noted, “The significance of this technology is in directly combating the most strategic and impactful threats we face, such as cutting off communication with the rear, relying solely on existing gear for combat.”
This approach differs significantly from the cloud-based AI systems widely used by the military. Cloud systems not only fail when interfered with but also pose risks to users as any signal could expose their location.