In an exclusive conversation with Major General SA Kulatunge, RWP, RSP, VSV, USP, PSC, Sri Lanka Army, wherein, he discusses how geospatial with the amalgamation of emerging technologies such as AI and ML can aid in the defense of the island nation.
How can geospatial aid in Sri Lanka’s defense?
Geospatial can help in many ways. Apart from traditional threats, Sri Lanka faces many non-traditional threats. Some of them are drug and human trafficking, which are turning into a major problem.
So to be able to have real-time information through geospatial is going to assist us and the decision-makers in engaging and also finding solutions to prevent and protect Sri Lanka against these non-traditional threats.
Sri Lanka is also working on a DC3IC platform for greater interoperability between the different armed forces. Can you please talk about it more?
The DC3IC platform is at a very infant stage right now where we have come up with a proposal after witnessing the need to have a platform through which all agencies can be linked together for greater interoperability. Basically, to have everything related to defense needs under one umbrella.
That’s what the DC3IC platform is trying to do, where the decision makers without just having data in their hands will have a collaborated and corroborated dataset that is already analyzed.
Then the real-time data that is required for the edition makers will be provided to them. So basically that’s what we are looking at and then we’ll be able to get the support of international partners and take this forward.
With emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning, do you think they can aid in increasing defense capabilities?
Of course they can. We’ve seen how it’s done, especially in India and many other countries where information is received in layers and with the help of AI, it is filtered down to real-time information intelligence, which supports decision-making.
Machine learning algorithms can also help us in predicting and simulating defense scenarios to prepare in advance against adverse situations.
So yes, machine learning and artificial intelligence are going to be and will always be very essential for decision-making.
As these modern datasets come up, new cyber threats are also evolving. How do you think we can tackle these challenges?
The more digitalized we become, the more we start depending upon AI and other technologies. This creates chances of hacking and creating a nuisance amongst critical infrastructure.
Thus, an urgency is born to make data and security go hand in hand. We need to be aware of the possible cyber threats as it was highlighted, amply highlighted during the sessions.
It is a key factor where we need to keep in mind that we can depend on certain technologies but at the same time, the technology can be hampered with. This is going to be essential.
Integrating new datasets and geospatial data with traditional defence systems has been one of your focus. Can you please talk more about it?
To explain this, I’ll take the example of Sri Lanka where we are heavily dependent on humanitarian and traditional defense systems as of now.
We are presently using various digital platforms to map our defense processes end to end, as well as, keep track of any emerging threats. We are using AI and similar datasets to map it. However, to translate these datasets into actionable insights, we still need the conventional military to go in and act.
