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Army pushes two new strategies to safeguard troops under 500-day AI implementation plan
The U.S. Army this week announced steps it is taking to safeguard its troops as it looks to bolster its ability to successfully implement artificial intelligence under a 500-day plan.
The Army’s acquisition, logistics and technology (ALT) office on Wednesday released two new initiatives, “Break AI” and “Counter AI,” which will test ever-developing AI technologies for reliable in-field use and provide protection from adversarial employment of AI against the U.S., the Federal News Network reported this week.
The Army is not only looking at how to safely implement AI across the military branch but how to develop it safely in coordination with outside parties.
Land mine detectors stand by as a U.S. army soldier maneuvers Hermes the robot into a cave to detect mines, traps and other unexploded ordinance and weapons or equipment possibly hidden by Taliban or al Qaeda fugitives July 29, 2002, in the eastern border town of Qiqay, Afghanistan. (Wally Santana/Pool/Getty Images)
HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS RESHAPING MODERN WARFARE
“One of the obstacles for the adoption is how do we look at risk around AI? We have to look at issues around poisoned datasets, adversarial attacks, trojans and those types of things,” Young Bang, principal deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army’s ALT, reportedly said during a tech conference in Georgia Wednesday.
“That’s easier to do if you’ve developed it in a controlled, trusted environment that [the Department of Defense] or the Army owns, and we’re going to do all that,” he added. “But this really looks at how we can adopt third-party or commercial vendors’ algorithms right into our programs, so that we don’t have to compete with them.
“We want to adopt them.”
Bang’s announcement came as the Army wrapped up a 100-day sprint that looked at how to incorporate AI into its acquisitions process.
The goal was to examine ways the Army could develop its own AI algorithms while also working alongside trustworthy third parties to develop the technology as securely as possible, the Federal News Network reported.
The Army is now using what it learned over the 100-day sprint to test and secure AI implementation across the board and develop systems for Army use alongside bolstering its defense against adversarial AI employment.
Visitors view a fighting robot dog during the 9th China (Beijing) Military Intelligent Technology Expo at the China National Convention Center May 17, 2024, in Beijing, China. (Guo Haipeng/VCG via Getty Images)
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The “Break AI” initiative will focus on how AI could evolve under a field known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is the development of software that looks to match or surpass human cognitive abilities, a technology that has the potential to employ sophisticated decision-making and learning capabilities.
This technology, which has not been fully realized yet, aims to improve upon current AI software that, for now, can only generate a predicted outcome based on data that is supplied.
But this next phase means not only developing but protecting against this ambiguous technology, meaning the Army has its work cut out for it.
“It’s about the notion of how we actually test and evaluate artificial intelligence,” Bang reportedly said. “As we move towards AGI, how do we actually test something that we don’t know what the outcome of or what the behaviors are going to be?
“You can’t test it the way that we test deterministic models, and we need industry’s help here.”
The Army’s second part of its 500-day plan is a bit more straight forward, explained Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army’s office of Data, Engineering and Software.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
Members of the U.S. Army ahead of the Polish Army Day parade in Warsaw, Poland, Aug. 15, 2024. (Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We want to make sure our platforms, our algorithms and our capabilities are secure from attack and from threat, but it’s also about how we counter what the adversary has,” she reportedly said. “We know we’re not the only ones investing in this. There’s lots of investment happening in countries that are big adversarial threats to the United States.”
The Army officials remained tight-lipped on specific details the military branch will be pursuing to develop AI capabilities due to the sensitive operational security nature of the initiatives.
Though, Swanson said, “As we start to learn and figure out what we’re going to do, there’s going to be things we share.”
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The United Kingdom on Monday blamed an Iran-linked proxy group for a string of antisemitic arson attacks targeting British Jewish sites, prompting the government to ban Tehran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and impose sweeping new powers to crack down on foreign-backed sabotage.
British officials said the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR) publicly claimed responsibility for seven attacks this year targeting Jewish and Israeli-linked locations, as well as a Persian-language media outlet critical of Iran’s government. According to the U.K. government, members of the IRGC’s elite Qods Force were “almost certainly” directing the group’s operations across Europe.
The attacks included fires at synagogues, Jewish charity ambulances and other Jewish community sites in London. No injuries were reported.
DESANTIS ANNOUNCES PLANS TO USE NEW STATE LAW TO TARGET DOZENS OF ALLEGED TERRORIST GROUPS
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts a reception with the Jewish community to discuss efforts to tackle antisemitism, at Downing Street, in London, July 13, 2026. (Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett/Pool)
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the new measures send a clear message to foreign adversaries seeking to sow violence.
“We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets,” Starmer said. “Anyone acting on behalf of those who threaten our national security should be in no doubt that there is no place for you in Britain.”
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer discusses efforts to tackle antisemitism at Downing Street in London, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Suzanne Plunkett/Pool Photo via AP)
If Parliament approves the designations later this week, anyone carrying out acts of sabotage — including arson — on behalf of the IRGC, IMCR or Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps could face life imprisonment. Supporting or assisting the groups could carry prison sentences of up to 14 years.
The British government said the new authorities, created under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026, will make it easier for prosecutors to secure convictions because they will no longer have to prove a direct foreign government connection in every case.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood accused both Tehran and Moscow of relying on criminal proxies to conduct hostile operations inside the United Kingdom.
“Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores,” Mahmood said. “I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars.”
ISRAEL FORTIFIES BORDER WITH JORDAN AS IRAN SEEKS NEW TERROR PATH
The government said IMCR emerged online earlier this year and has also claimed responsibility for attacks on synagogues in Belgium and the Netherlands. British intelligence officials say Iran-backed proxy groups have increasingly recruited members of criminal organizations to carry out sabotage, intimidation and physical attacks across Europe, often targeting Jewish communities and Iranian dissidents.
Charred remains of ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community organization, which were set on fire in an incident that the police say is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, in London, March 23, 2026. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
According to the U.K., MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots against individuals in Britain over the past year. The government has already sanctioned more than 550 Iranian-linked individuals and entities and has pledged £250 million ($334,662,500) over three years to strengthen security for Jewish communities, including increased protection for synagogues, schools and community centers.
Britain also designated Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps, saying the group acts as a proxy for Russian military intelligence by recruiting individuals online to conduct sabotage, arson and other hostile operations.
The crackdown comes just weeks after two Romanian men were sentenced to prison for stabbing a journalist working for a Persian-language television station in London, an attack a British judge said was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.
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Iran did not immediately comment on Monday’s announcement, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The European Union has sanctioned VK Company, which dominates Russia’s online sphere, for colluding with the Kremlin to identify critics of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and curtail access to independent sources of information.
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VK Company runs VKontakte, the country’s most popular social media site. Often described as “the Russian Facebook”, it has an estimated 70 million users.
The decision, taken on Monday by foreign ministers, points the finger at VK Company and an associated firm for developing and managing Max App, which is state-backed and comes pre-installed on all phones and tablets sold in Russia.
Citing experts, Brussels argues that Max App has “extensive surveillance features” that Russian authorities use to track online communications, gather data, monitor address books, identify user location and install autonomous updates.
The imposition of Max App has helped the state crack down on competitors, such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, and on VPNs, the private networks that Russians employ to bypass increasingly stringent state restrictions on the Internet.
“VK has cooperated with Russian authorities in their repressive actions, including by providing them with data concerning users of its services who posted content criticising Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, or other content banned by the authorities,” the legal text says.
“VK has also participated in the government-ordered ban on the use of VPNs, through which Russian internet users could previously access independent content.”
Monday’s decision introduces an asset freeze and prohibits EU companies from making funds available to VK Company. In a statement to Russian state-owned media outlet TASS, the firm said that its applications and services remained “available to users as normal”.
Besides VK Company, the EU also sanctioned Citadel, VAS Experts and Norsi-Trans, three companies that provide hardware and software for the so-called System of Operative Investigative Measures that Russian authorities use to track online communication and target journalists, opposition figures, minority groups and ordinary citizens.
The restrictions were adopted under a special regime dedicated to punishing human rights violations.
Separately, the EU sanctionednine individuals and four entities accused of carrying out “malicious” cyber attacks against several member states.
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