Army debuts data operations center to serve as information hub

The U.S. Army launched a new data center earlier this month to support the flow of information from the military’s vast troves to commanders and soldiers on the battlefield. The Army Data Operations Center’s April 3 debut is part of an enormous push to further integrate data and machine learning into military operations , according to a Pentagon release . The armed forces have used data from military , intelligence and business sources for the past several years. Historically, that has been a somewhat cumbersome process, as different datasets are often separated from one another, necessitating different security clearances, or housed on different systems. The ADOC is meant to mitigate those issues, functioning as a kind of information hub. “We don’t have a data problem. We have a data management problem, and data becomes the ammunition that we need to provide to our senior leaders in order for them to make quick and informed decisions and gain decision dominance,” Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey, deputy chief of staff for the Army G-6, said in the release. The office will be housed under Army Cyber Command, the release states. It is scheduled to run as a pilot for six months, with the Pentagon potentially adopting it as a model, DefenseScoop reported. Although data could have many military uses, the Army is emphasizing its use in battlefield decision-making, such as targeting. That’s not new, but there should be a broader focus on artificial intelligence integration into other areas, exper…