The U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) and European Command (EUCOM) are first in line to receive new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) capabilities to help tackle some of the combatant commands’ tech-related challenges.
The new capabilities stem from a recent prototype contract awarded by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to Scale AI under the Thunderforge program. The Thunderforge solution is designed to deliver “a unified planning ecosystem where AI agents simulate wargaming and planning scenarios and refine proposed courses of action,” according to the contract announcement.
“The Thunderforge technology solution will provide AI-assisted planning capabilities, decision support tools, and automated workflows, enabling military planners to navigate evolving operational environments. By leveraging advanced large language models (LLMs), AI-driven simulations, and interactive agent-based wargaming, Thunderforge will enhance how the U.S. military prepares for and executes operations,” DIU stated.
The system – which includes Scale AI’s agentic applications and GenAI test and evaluation expertise – will be deployed initially with INDOPACOM and EUCOM a to support mission-critical planning activities, including campaign development, theater-wide resource allocation, and strategic assessment.
According to DIU, Thunderforge’s integration across multiple security domains ensures that “AI-driven planning capabilities will be securely embedded into real-world military operations.”
“Thunderforge brings AI-powered analysis and automation to operational and strategic planning, allowing decision-makers to operate at the pace required for emerging conflicts,” Bryce Goodman, DIU Thunderforge Program lead and contractor, said in the statement.
Gen. Peter Andrysiak, EUCOM’s chief of staff, praised Thunderforge as a crucial tool in the command’s ongoing efforts to digitize and strengthen its decision-making capabilities, advancing the modernization of EUCOM’s command and control systems.
“Our ability to consolidate, analyze, and act on vast quantities of theater-wide data across the warfighting functions has never been greater. Thunderforge is a next step in this effort and will allow the US to keep pushing the frontier forward in terms of leveraging emerging technologies to modernize organizational efficiency,” he said in the statement.
Following its initial deployment and if the tech meets expectations, DIU plans to scale the Thunderforge capability across the U.S. military’s other combatant commands.
