US military working on constant connections and updates between all ships, planes and vehicles

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein wants all military fighters, bombers, planes, ships, tanks and other military assets to be as connected as Tesla cars. H/T To Patrick Tuckrer at Defense One.

Goldfein waxed enthusiastically about how Tesla was able to remotely increase the battery capacity of cars in the U.S. Southeast to facilitate evacuation before the recent hurricanes.

“Every Tesla car is connected to every other Tesla car,” said Goldfein, referring to a presentation by Elon Musk about the ways his firm’s vehicles learn from their collective experience. “If a Tesla is headed down the road and hits a pothole, every Tesla that’s behind it that’s self-driving, it will avoid the pothole, immediately. If you’re driving the car, it automatically adjusts your shocks in case you hit it, too.”

The U.S. Army, too, is investing big dollars into figuring out how to connect everything on the battlefield. An Army Research Lab program called the Internet of Battle of Things will be led by researchers at the University of Illinois, with help from the Universities of Massachusetts, multiple California State branches, Carnegie Mellon, and SRI International.

The Navy is also working on integrating ships in order to connect “everything to everything”.

The marines are looking at a tank that could heal itself after an attack while sending information about the direction of the attack to other units and back to headquarters.

The end goal may sound like Skynet from the Terminator movies but the military denies the reference and the comparison.