The 30 September document outlines AFRICOM's reasoning for purchasing cloud computing services directly from Microsoft under its $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, bypassing other potential providers.
The document states: "The USAFRICOM operates in a dynamic and evolving environment where IT plays a critical role in achieving mission objectives. "
It highlights "its vital mission supporting our African Mission Partners [and] USAFRICOM joint exercises."
Labelled as Controlled Unclassified Information and marked FEDCON, the document is restricted from distribution beyond government or contractors. The Defense Information Systems Agency approved AFRICOM's request, noting that the purchase value is less than $15 million.
AFRICOM, which oversees the Pentagon's operations across Africa and includes local military cooperation with U.S. allies, has shown an increasing appetite for cloud computing.
The Defence Department already uses Microsoft's cloud services through the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability project. This new document indicates AFRICOM's desire to expedite the procurement process by purchasing Microsoft Azure cloud services, including OpenAI software, without considering other vendors.
The document emphasises the importance of supporting advanced AI/ML workloads, including services for search, natural language processing, machine learning, and unified analytics for data processing.
AFRICOM asserts that Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, with its suite of OpenAI tools, is the only provider capable of meeting these needs.
Microsoft began offering OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model to defence customers in June 2023. Following OpenAI's shift in stance on military work earlier this year, the company announced a cybersecurity collaboration with DARPA. It stated its tools would be used for a veteran suicide prevention initiative. In April, Microsoft proposed using OpenAI's image generation tool, DALL-E, for Pentagon command and control software.
The AFRICOM document marks the first confirmed purchase of OpenAI's products by a U.S. combatant command focused on combat operations. OpenAI's corporate mission remains "to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity."
"Without access to Microsoft's integrated suite of AI tools and services, USAFRICOM would face significant challenges in analysing and extracting actionable insights from vast amounts of data.This could lead to delays in decision-making, compromised situational awareness, and decreased agility in responding to dynamic and evolving threats across the African continent," the report said.
