ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Ensuring the reliability of military systems is a critical mission for the U.S. Army, and at the forefront of this effort is the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Analysis Center (DAC). As the Army’s Center for Reliability Growth (CRG), DAC plays a vital role in system evaluation, test design and acquisition by providing cutting-edge tools and expertise to enhance the performance and durability of defense technologies.
“Reliability is the backbone of mission success,” says Nathan Herbert, a reliability analyst at DAC. “Our work ensures that when a system is deployed, whether it’s an autonomous vehicle, a weapons platform, or a sensor system, it performs as expected under the required conditions.”
Pioneering AI Reliability in Defense
As the military increasingly integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its operations, ensuring AI reliability is one of DAC’s priorities. AI offers transformative potential for decision-making and autonomous functions, but it also introduces new risks that require rigorous assessment.
DAC addresses these challenges through failure mode analysis, risk assessment tools and partnerships with defense organizations. The DoD’s Responsible AI Initiative underscores the importance of reliability, safety and mission effectiveness in AI applications.
“We are developing methodologies to understand how AI systems fail and how to mitigate those failures,” Herbert explained. “From model training limitations to human-machine breakdowns to adversarial attacks, we need robust design and testing to ensure AI can operate reliably in real-world scenarios.”
Challenges in Autonomous Systems
One area of particular concern is the reliability of autonomous ground vehicles and robotic systems. DAC engineers have identified key areas of concern, including:
- Obstacle Avoidance Issues – Autonomous systems could struggle to differentiate between significant obstacles like trees, and minor debris like leaves, leading to unnecessary path changes.
- Identification Failures – AI models sometimes misclassify objects due to incomplete or obscured imagery.
- Environmental Challenges – Robotic dogs, for instance, have difficulty navigating through tall grass, affecting their movement.
- Teaming Breakdowns – Ineffective human-machine interactions may degrade AI system performance and the user’s situational awareness.
- Adversarial Attacks – AI systems are vulnerable to manipulation through tactics like model poisoning, hacking and camouflage techniques that trick detection algorithms.
Navigation Exploits – AI-dependent vehicles can be misdirected by subtle environmental modifications, such as deceptive road markings.
According to Herbert, addressing these challenges requires a multi-layered approach that includes cybersecurity, operational context analysis and continuous system monitoring. “Trust in autonomous systems is only possible if we can ensure their resilience to both expected and unexpected conditions,” says Herbert.
Innovative Tools for AI Reliability
To enhance AI reliability, DAC has developed tools like the “failure mode wheel,” an interactive platform that allows engineers to analyze potential failure points in AI systems. Additionally, DAC has introduced an AI reliability scorecard, adapted from traditional reliability assessments to systematically evaluate factors such as model selection, data quality and configuration management.
“This scorecard helps us take a structured approach to AI reliability,” Herbert noted. “It ensures that we are considering all critical aspects of AI development and deployment, from initial training to life cycle management.”
Shaping the Future of Defense Reliability
Beyond AI, DAC continues to drive reliability advancements in hardware and electronic systems, improving durability and reducing life cycle costs. Its contributions to reliability standards and collaboration with external agencies strengthen the center’s role as a key player in defense system evaluation.
As DAC forges ahead, its focus remains clear: to ensure that the Army’s most advanced technologies function reliably when they are needed most. “Our goal is to provide Warfighters with the confidence that their systems will perform when needed,” Herbert said. “That’s what reliability is all about.”
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The Center for Reliability Growth models and the interactive AI failure mode wheel are available for free in the DAC reliability dashboard at https://apps.dse.futures.army.mil/RelToolsDashboard/. Users must have a Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC) and government network connection to access it. If you do not meet those requirements, DAC can instead send you the legacy versions of the models and tools, upon approval.
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Analysis Center (DAC) informs Army transformation and readiness decisions across the system’s life cycle through objective integrated system-level Analysis, and the development of credible Data and Analytic Tools. DAC is one of seven Centers within DEVCOM. Visit the DEVCOM website for more information.
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