Game publisher Slitherine has informed us that one of their partners, Northrop Grumman Corporation, was awarded the DARPA Gamebreaker Contract. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) awards this contract for developers that introduces innovative programming in real-time strategy games where it breaks a complex gaming model.

Are you confused? So were we initially, since we’ve never heard about this award before. Read more in the press release below, which will hopefully enlighten you as it did us. Slitherine gave us permission to share this news on our site.

Press Release: Northrop Grumman Corporation Awarded DARPA Gamebreaker Contract

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) was recently awarded a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) for the Gamebreaker program. This innovative program seeks to develop and apply artificial intelligence (AI) to existing real-time strategy games to break a complex model or create an imbalance.

Northrop Grumman Corporation technology to improve flexible planning, optimization and discovery in products that operate dynamic environments.

“Using AI to exploit engagement models can help to enable intelligent systems that could in turn enhance military strategy,” said Susan Wilson, director, intelligent mission capabilities and advanced technology laboratory, Northrop Grumman Corporation. “We are exploring how we may be able to use this methodology in the future.”

Northrop Grumman Corporation‘s Gamebreaker team includes Hazardous Software and Slitherine Software’s Matrix Games. Working closely together, this partnership will use advanced AI techniques to model and break balance within a highly complex simulator environment called “Command: Modern Operations”.

“Hazardous Software Inc. (HSI) is excited to continue our partnership with Northrop Grumman Corporation,” said Christopher Hazard, CEO, Hazardous Software. “Building upon our 13 years of history modeling dynamic adversarial scenarios and leveraging the Diveplane machine learning platform, HSI’s approach to Gamebreaker complements Northrop Grumman Corporation‘s longstanding experience and technology capabilities.”

“Command Professional Edition is the only wargame being analyzed by DARPA in the Gamebreaker program,” said Iain McNeil, CEO, Slitherine Software. “We are very interested to see how the AI behaves and if it manages to identify loopholes that need assessment, or it comes up with innovative strategies that are applicable to the real world.”

Hazardous Software Inc. (HSI) creates technology that enables and incentivizes people to operate strategically in uncertain environments, regardless of whether it is a game, a simulation, or a real-life event. HSI leverages its unique capabilities in counterfactual reasoning and through understandable artificial intelligence via its relationship with Diveplane Corporation, a company it spun out in 2017.

Matrix Games specializes in COTS physics-based simulations and strategy video games. Through careful research and development, commercial simulations are turned into modern and powerful programs that are able to replicate complex military operations, from tactical and operational to analytical. Matrix Games, utilizing the Flashpoint Campaigns Sim, has now been appointed to year 2 of the ATHENA Prototype Project by DEFENSE ENERGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE (NSTXL) on behalf of the United States Army Future Studies Group. The company is also a “single source” contractor and research and development supplier of the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

Northrop Grumman Corporation solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.

Slitherine Game Reviews

We’re fortunate enough to have dealt with Slitherine and Matrix Games before. So of course, we’re happy that it’s partner Northrop Grumman Corporation was awarded the DARPA Gamebreaker Contract. Here are some of their games that we reviewed: