How science helps Defence to prepare for the future
By Catherine Nichols, Deputy Head Analysis and Experimentation, Army HQ
Defence is always trying to anticipate the future. When I started as a MOD graduate scientist trainee in the mid-1990s, 2020 was almost unimaginably far away. My eyes were opened when I joined a group of defence scientists and analysts for whom assessing scenarios of possible military operations in future decades was routine. Defence used — and still uses — computer simulations and wargames to develop and test its future plans, including identifying which technologies could give the UK a winning edge over our adversaries. Artificial intelligence is one area that offers significant opportunities to enhance UK defence capabilities.
I’m a physicist by training, as are a surprising number of my colleagues. Although no-one’s actually said it, I’ve always assumed that this is because physicists are used to taking very complicated situations and simplifying them into something that can be more easily represented mathematically! It’s these skills that lend themselves so well to using computer models and wargames to analyse the future. I’ve spent much of my career using computer models of future operations to analyse which combinations of technologies and capabilities would be best for Defence, from ships to sensors, tanks to training.
Since my analytical days, I’ve had several other roles in Defence Science and Technology, such as fast-tracking novel technology to our troops in Afghanistan, providing scientific advice to the Army’s capability development branch, and my current role as the Senior Scientific Adviser in MOD Head Office. In all of these roles, I’ve seen the benefits Defence derives from its ability to simulate the future and test different plans, whether that future was next week or next decade. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next few years will bring as advancements in artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology have the potential to really enhance our simulation capabilities and support the technology-led modernisation of Defence.
