Pentagon prototypes AI platform to better analyze adversaries’ news media
The Pentagon’s AI acceleration hub recently moved to operationally prototype custom, commercial machine learning models that can monitor and assess adversarial media and associated data to support U.S. national security missions and swiftly supply predictions based on high-tech analysis.
In response to questions regarding a contract award unveiled Wednesday, a Defense Department spokesperson shared new details about how and why the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) is rapidly prototyping BigBear.ai’s Virtual Anticipation Network (VANE) to advance complex information operations across the military.
“The machine learning tools and datasets within VANE could help identify the relationships between datasets over time, to inform senior leader decisions and provide key strategic context to DOD decisions,” the spokesperson said on Thursday.
The CDAO opted to leverage this platform to improve its internal capacity to identify key trends and topics related to potential foreign adversary areas of interest.
VANE was originally developed in partnership with the DOD’s Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate. In April 2024, the company received “awardable” status to offer the tool on the CDAO Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace.
“Any federal government entity can view, contact, and negotiate [and] enter into a procurement with the awardable vendors” on Tradewinds, the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.
This new contract for CDAO-led pursuits “marks a successful transition from a research prototype to an operational prototype, providing critical insights to decision-makers,” company officials wrote in BigBear.ai’s press release.
The deal involves a transition plan, which will guide envisioned future deployments on the CDAO’s in-transition Advana environment and enable “a broader audience across the DOD’s Combatant Commands to access the advanced AI capability,” they noted.
Spokespersons from BigBear.ai did not respond to a request for comment.
In a recently published solutions brief, officials from the company wrote that “VANE is on track to provide data-driven assessments across multiple domains and echelons, including grey-zone warfare, operations at the strategic and operational levels, information warfare, and more.”
The DOD spokesperson did not directly respond to DefenseScoop’s questions regarding the price of this procurement or the platform’s functions and capabilities.
A contracting record on the Federal Procurement Data System shows that in late September the CDAO entered into an other transaction agreement (OTA) with BigBear.ai for a “VANE Prototype.”
The total contract value — including the base and all options — is listed as more than $1.3 million.
“The current prototyping effort is focused on exploring the utility of VANE in supporting CDAO’s customers,” the DOD spokesperson told DefenseScoop.
Without providing further details, they added that the office harnesses “the VANE platform to support data analytics related to strategic competition and other projects.”
