Northrop-Led Team Gets DARPA Contract to Build AI-Based Wargame Simulation Tech

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected a Northrop Grumman-led team for a program aimed at integrating artificial intelligence and strategy games to assess technologies in simulated battlefield operations.

Northrop, along with Slitherine Software’s Matrix Games unit and Hazardous Software, will work with DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office to develop a virtual environment called “Command: Modern Operations” as part of the Gamebreaker program, Northrop said Wednesday.

The real-time simulation tool will employ AI models and techniques to help DARPA plan, optimize and discover approaches to integrating new technologies in dynamic environments.

Iain McNeil, CEO of Slitherine Software, said the team’s simulation tool serves as the only wargame under analysis for the Gamebreaker effort.

Susan Wilson, director for intelligent mission capabilities and advanced technology laboratory at Northrop, said utilizing AI models can help increase the capacity of intelligent systems to support military strategy development.

“We are exploring how we may be able to use this methodology in the future,” she noted.

Slitherine Software in a U.K.-based developer of video games focused on war and strategy operations. Hazardous Games is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., and offers tools and services for simulation-based game development.