High performance computing plays a critical role in U.S. national security through the country’s defense and intelligence organizations, though detailed information is necessarily treated confidentially. Nevertheless, we know the Department of Defense employs HPC resources directly at its military branches’ research labs (e.g., Naval Research Lab, Army Research Lab, Air Force Research Lab), and by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to develop weaponry and to perform detailed weather modeling in various operating theaters. DoD has also benefited from government subcontractors’ application of HPC in the development of military equipment, including fighter jets, submarines, weaponry, and data analytics supporting its warfighters.
In addition, HPC is used by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Safety Administration, tasked with stewardship of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. HPC systems used by NNSA are frequently found near the top of the TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
This article is a summary of a white paper developed on behalf of Dell Technologies by HPC industry analyst firm Hyperion Research, on the crucial role that HPC investments by the U.S. government play in supporting U.S. national security strategies.
Other national security mission requirements that rely on HPC include:
▪ Intelligence community and cybersecurity
▪ Space safety and stewardship
▪ Global and local climate and weather modeling
▪ Homeland and border security
HPC helps combat threats from both adversarial nation states and non-state entities, such as terrorist organizations. Bad actors around the world work tirelessly to defeat security systems using the latest technologies, including AI and quantum computing. To counteract this, the U.S. government will need, at a minimum, an equal level of investment in these key areas.
In its white paper, Hyperion Research stated that while vendor consolidation in HPC has reduced the options for these critical purchases, Dell Technologies, with its broad product and services portfolio, in conjunction with its technology providers, such as AMD, has developed a range of HPC-class solutions to address these critical national requirements in such areas as:
▪ Intelligence, and border protection
▪ Intelligence
▪ Cybersecurity (offensive & defensive)
▪ Imaging and sensing analysis
▪ Space monitoring and stewardship (e.g., space debris, space defense)
▪ Homeland security and border security (e.g., coast guard, FBI, re-entry into country &
visualization; no-fly list; image recognition)
▪ Public health and safety
▪ Public health
▪ Emergency and crisis response
▪ Sustainability
▪ Weather and climate
▪ Commerce and finance
▪ Preparedness for anticipated economic downturns
▪ Global supply chain
▪ Counterfeiting and financial security
▪ Infrastructure (e.g., smart cities, national power grid)
▪ Indigenous technology impacting US companies
▪ Educated workforce
Download the whitepaper to read more about “To Out-compute is to Out-compete: In the Interests of National Security – Defense Technologies and Use Cases.”
Visit Dell.com/HPC for information on HPC solutions for government. Join the HPC Community at DellHPC.org.
