Hadean and Cervus Launch Decision Support System

Last week marked a significant release for Hadean and our partners at Cervus. Over the last few months, the two teams have been working together to deliver a digital decision support system for the UK Ministry of Defence, as part of the Defence and Security Accelerator initiative. This will be unveiled on April 26 at the IT²EC 2022 event in London. In this blog, we explore what exactly has gone into this piece of technology and its role in the wider building of a ‘digital backbone’.

Everyday, military and defence organisation across the globe are faced with decisions. What kind of support do we need in that area? How quickly do we need it there? Is this the right strategy in light of ‘x’ objective? And beyond these higher level ones, the details of these questions only open more boxes. Things like: where do you obtain the necessary resources/hardware, which particular models do you use and what are the costs of these both economically and in terms of time to deliver?

While this has existed in defence for years, our current world of globalisation and technological acceleration has vastly changed the landscape on which these decisions are made. Complexity is the word of the time, meaning that both the number of options has increased as well as each one having infinitely more consequences. Navigating these scenarios with speed and precision is becoming more and more difficult, as our legacy incumbent processes struggle to keep pace. They may involve slow deliberations between experts, compromises and subjective viewpoints. The Forge looks to replace this with a data-driven approach utilising web 3.0 technologies available today.

Cervus’ AI engine ‘Hive’ is able to run simulations that examine the full breadth of consequences resulting from a decision. By doing this for each decision, the most optimum one can be chosen to inform the real action eventually taken. Running these simulations at the speed necessary, however, takes an unfathomably inaccessible amount of compute power. This is why the Hadean platform is powering the system, easily and securely scaling computation over the cloud as needed. This decision support system will give a clear view of both high level aims as well as low level, incremental innovations. It will give decision makers agility in their cycles and vastly improve the visibility of actions and overall mission readiness.

In terms of wider technological development, it’s incredibly exciting to see the launch of this joint venture. The idea of using the Hadean platform as part of a digital decision support system began in our relatively small innovation department, speaking volumes to its potential for new kinds of applications. By integrating distributed computing with Cervus’ cutting edge AI, we’re able to bring something truly new to the table using these emerging technologies. In defence, we understand digital transformation as one of the key modern challenges, and we can’t wait to continue accelerating this integration with future technology – giving governments and organisations greater control and observability of their defence and security.