A new translation and interpretation system has entered service with the British armed forces which looks set to accelerate the speed at which communications intelligence can be processed.
Despite the confusion surrounding the United Kingdom’s Cornerstone land forces Electronic Warfare (EW) system, which Armada disclosed in this recent article, there is some good news for the UK EW sector. On 17th September Babcock announced it had supplied the company’s Nomad Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) capability to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). According to a company press release, Nomad “fulfils an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) from the UK’s armed forces”. No further details were provided concerning this UOR.
Nomad, which Babcock says uses Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled software, is primarily a Communications Intelligence (COMINT) processing tool. The AI software plays a key role in cleaning, transcribing, translating and analysing captured communications traffic to provide voice and data COMINT. One consequence of using Nomad, the company’s press release continued, is that it may help to reduce the need to deploy linguists to the field to assist with processing captured communications traffic. Linguists are typically high-demand, low-availability assets. Nations may have a finite number of linguists specialising in relevant local languages and dialects when deploying to a specific theatre of operations. Moreover, deploying linguists means that they can be at risk from hostile action and are unlikely to be easy or quick to replace.
Linguists as targets
To put matters into perspective, the British government relied on around 7,000 Locally Employed Civilians (LECs) during the UK’s twenty-year deployment to Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick, according to official figures. Herrick was the UK codename for the British contribution to United States- and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) led military operations in the Central Asian country. While it is unlikely that the deployment of Nomad will see the wholesale replacement of linguists at the tactical and operational level, it may allow for fewer to be placed in danger. Moreover, Nomad’s procurement may also mean that the number of LECs UK forces rely on in theatre during future operations can be reduced.
Individuals who supported NATO forces during combat operations in Afghanistan, notably linguists, have been the subject of reprisals by the Taliban Islamist militia who seized power in the country following the US and allied withdrawal in 2021. Roger Wicker, senior US senator for Mississippi, noted in June 2021 that 300 Afghan interpreters, or their family members, who supported US forces during the deployment had been murdered. Since 2006, over 15,000 Afghan interpreters have been granted special immigrant visas to live in the United States.
An additional benefit of Nomad is that linguists may not always be present on the battlefield exactly when and where they are required, precisely because they are a finite asset. As Nomad will greatly aid the processing of captured COMINT linguists can be used to confirm the accuracy of the Nomad-analysed COMINT as and when required. Having such analysis at, or near, the tactical edge reduces the time needed to collect hostile voice and data traffic, have those analysed and then share the resulting intelligence product. Being able to perform such analysis at the point of collection could help accelerate sensor-to-shooter times by determining tactically relevant and perishable COMINT, and acting on it accordingly.
Architecture
In terms of Nomad’s configuration Babcock told Armada via a written statement that Nomad “is primarily a software-defined SIGINT and language exploitation capability that can be deployed on a range of approved edge-compute hardware platforms”. Nomad is primarily intended “to support tactical and operational level SIGINT activities by providing near real-time transcription, translation, search and intelligence exploitation”. Nonetheless, Nomad’s COMINT products can “contribute to wider operational and strategic intelligence activities”. As a new capability the system augments and enhances “existing collection and exploitation workflows by accelerating language processing and intelligence analysis”.
Nomad’s deployment could greatly ease, improve and accelerate the processing of COMINT at tactical and operational levels. Not only will this help to enrich situational awareness at these levels of war but may also help reduce the dependence on military, civilian and local linguists for interpreter work and communications intelligence analysis. Furthermore, the pace with which Nomad can process data may help to reduce sensor-to-shooter times on the battlefield. AI is proving its worth in the civilian world as a capable translation and interpretation tool. It looks set to have a similar impact on the battlefield.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
