In recent years, we have seen artificial intelligence (AI) become a key component in much of Saab’s security and defense product portfolio, whether for surveillance sensors, intelligent cockpit technology or autonomous sea rescue systems.

For Saab, AI is an asset that ranges from predictive maintenance to behavioral detection and it plays an important role in its future autonomous systems. Ultimately, AI is both a scout and an efficiency tool, and its importance to Saab and our customers will only increase in the years to come.

What can AI bring to Saab?

“AI allows us to put certain features into products that we haven’t been able to do before. Things are getting smarter, ”explains Joakim Ekblad, Head of Emerging Technologies.

“It allows us to make reasoned decisions about tens of thousands of things and quickly resolve very complex situations, finding the best possible choice at that time.”

“But it’s not just about bling-bling apps. ”

“We often talk about autonomous vehicles and planes, but they are still years away. What we can do today is pick the handy rewards of AI, such as predictive maintenance. We have all the data generated by the aircraft; if we can use AI to find a problem with the plane before it breaks down, we can save a lot of time and a lot of money by changing the parts before they break down.

“It’s a great use case for Saab and this is where the competition will try to beat us. The lifecycle of the Gripen is very profitable, but as AI for predictive maintenance grows, competitors will be looking at how they can steal a step from us. So we have to step up and continue to develop our capabilities and keep the life cycle cost low, otherwise they will get ahead of us.

New solution for massive data fusion

One example of the high-end technologies AI can bring is Saab’s Big Data Fusion Project.

“Our latest solution for massive data fusion is a cloud-based data lake where we take data and put it in the context of time and space,” says Ekblad.

“This allows us to make real-time predictions about the physical behaviors of where people, ships, or planes are heading, and also to predict the contextual behaviors of what those people, ships, or planes are actually doing. ”

“For example, in the crowded skies over Sweden, we could use technology to filter out planes exhibiting normal behaviors and focus on objects, including planes and drones, whose movements on radar are abnormal. We can ignore this information without needing a whole lot of information about elevation, proximity to an airport, etc. Make.’

The technology can also help spot unusual activity on the ground or even analyze sudden foreign media mentions about Saab or Sweden’s capabilities. It has already generated considerable interest both inside and outside Saab, as it has great advantages in this time of complex ‘gray zone’ conflicts.

“Today’s wars and tensions are strange in that they can occur while civilian planes, road traffic or ships continue to fly, drive or navigate,” Ekblad explains.

“The signal environment is becoming more and more complex. We are trying to respond to this on the ground but the “cyber-weather” is turbulent. Having the predictive power to understand changes in behavior patterns is crucial in the long run. ‘

What’s next for massive data fusion, AI and Saab?

As it continues to develop in collaboration with Saab’s sensor offerings as well as space sensors and open source intelligence (OSINT), massive data fusion technology will become increasingly important for the offering of Saab monitoring. Joakim Ekblad is proud of the progress he and his team, as well as Saab, have made from the drawing board to customer contracts in just three years.

“With our customers for that ability, we can let the company capitalize on what we have while our team goes and does more advanced research on AI and adds our product to it,” he said. declared.

“We also face our biggest challenge: We have doubled the team working on this technology over the past year, but the demand for our Big Data Fusion services is so great that we are looking to expand the team. Scaling up is the biggest challenge. There is a real buzz in the company about the potential of this technology. We have exciting times ahead of us! ‘