ADELPHI, Md. – A partnership between the Navy and the Army’s sole fundamental research laboratory aims to produce an AI-powered, real-time, secure translator software system for warfighters in an effort to equip the force as quickly as possible through technological innovation.
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, or DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory entered a one-year agreement with the Office of Naval Research Global TechSolutions to deliver advanced multi-language interpretation capabilities for field testing by the U.S. Department of War that can be rapidly transitioned to industry to support expeditionary forces.
The anticipated ULTRA-MAR translator system prototype will provide the Army and other services with advanced communication capabilities that address the unique communication needs of the armed forces and are not currently available in commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Although the technology was originally developed for the Army, this partnership intends to make this capability broadly available for the Navy and empower industry to produce battlefield-ready speech translation technology to support the warfighter.
As the leading intellectual hub for the Army, DEVCOM ARL leverages its world-class experts with many years of research in AI and other areas to create partnerships that accelerate the delivery of war-winning, disruptive technologies for tomorrow’s warfighters.
“ARL is home to the Army’s top scientific minds,” said Dr. Laura Vanderhoef, ARL deputy chief scientist. “Our researchers bring decades of knowledge and professional expertise in meeting Army needs. This coupled with their partnerships with industry, academia and the military make them highly qualified to tackle technical challenges across the armed services. This partnership with the Navy allows ARL to do what it does best: solving complex problems to deliver rapid support for the current and future warfighter.”
The collaboration between ARL and ONR Global TechSolutions showcases how matching the Navy’s mission-critical needs with ARL’s mission-focused expertise bolsters Army technological capabilities while strengthening interservice relationships.
“The challenges the Army and Navy face in science and technology are often similar,” said ONR Global Commander Capt. Eric “Nutt” Hutter. “We gain significant advantage and greater lethality when we work together to leverage our combined expertise. This collaboration represents the future of how our military will innovate, ensuring our warfighters have the technological edge to defeat any potential threat.”
The joint effort also showcases an important avenue for addressing scientific and technological needs within the Department of War that require immediate attention but remain underdeveloped in industry.
“AI-powered translation tools are dismantling the walls between languages,” said Jason Payne, TechSolutions director. “Our nation’s warfighters need this capability to instantly communicate with local populations and allied forces from other nations without the need for translator personnel. TechSolutions is leveraging the ARL expertise to develop a secure military product that operates in real-time, while offline, for translation capability that can be carried anywhere needed.”
ARL determined that it could rapidly develop the requested capability using existing technology that the lab had previously transitioned to Soldiers.
This speech-to-speech solution, called ULTRA, does not need internet or other network access to translate spoken military jargon into other languages and can operate fully offline in Disrupted, Degraded, Intermittent and Low-Bandwidth environments without losing its translation speed, accuracy or other capabilities.
ARL researchers will build upon this existing foundation to create a version for maritime operations called ULTRA-MAR, bypassing many of the steps that current non-military commercial products would have to take during development.
“We can deliver this capability quickly, because the specifications of our Army translator system already meet the strict requirements mandated by the Navy and Marine Corps,” said Dr. Stephen LaRocca, Army computer scientist and principal investigator. “Because the technology was designed specifically for use by Soldiers in contested environments, it already possesses many of the same defense-relevant features that Sailors and Marines need for their mission.”
The in-house origin of the proposed ULTRA-MAR, which is short for Universal Language Translator – Maritime Edition, also allows for fast and easy modifications to the technology for new use cases, new hardware systems and new languages.
LaRocca emphasized how partnering with the other services enables the collective improvement of military capabilities across the force.
“This is a great opportunity for the advancement of military-oriented and mission-driven speech and language technologies,” LaRocca said. “By collaborating with the Navy in this way, ARL can speed up the development of language translation technologies for all the services.”
According to LaRocca, the rapid development of these technologies will help foster similar advancements in industry and enable manufacturers to incorporate the desired military capabilities into commercial systems sooner.
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DEVCOM ARL is the Army’s sole fundamental research laboratory serving as the nexus of science between the military, academia and industry. ARL executes globally recognized research to accelerate delivery of war-winning, disruptive technologies for tomorrow’s Army.
For information, visit the Army Research Laboratory website.
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