The memorandum on collaboration between CTU and the army of the Czech Republic was formally signed on April 25th, 2023 in the ceremonial hall of CTU in Prague by lieutenant-general Miroslav Hlaváč, representing the General Staff of the Army, and doc. RNDr. Vojtěch Petráček, CSc., rector of CTU in Prague.
The document defines the linkage of CTU with the Breakthrough Technologies project and with proposals for introducing them into the Army. Academic specialists will determine areas of innovative and breakthrough technologies and their military applications. The army undertakes to contribute topics for scientific work in university workplaces. Both parties will contribute to educational activities and publications, and will participate in seminars and workshops. A significant part of the collaboration will involve specialized work and internships by CTU staff and students with military units and with military equipment within the framework of the project.
To improve its technological maturity, the army of the Cech Republic makes use of knowledge from science and research in the field of innovative Emerging and Disruptive Technologies. " It is essential to apply breakthrough technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics in future projects within the framework of modernizing our army. Close collaboration with academic specialists is a way to implement new technologies into military capabilities,“ Generál Hlaváč explains.
“In this matter, CTU offers great added value, because our researchers work on technologies that are not yet commercially accessible, and to some extent they look into the future,“ Vojtěch Petráček, rector of CTU, points out.
He adds that CTU in Prague has since 2018 been co-organising discussion forums, round tables and workshops, in which it informs representatives of the Army of the Czech Republic about the potential uses of quantum physics, for example, for military purposes. CTU is also the Czech representative in the so-called NATO Academic Alliance, a network of scientific workplaces for the whole Alliance, which is helping to develop the future of NATO.
The Memorandum follows on from the National Strategy for the Development and Protection of Upcoming and Breakthrough Technologies in the Czech Republic. The Army of the Czech Republic pays considerable attention to artificial intelligence, and will in future not be able to do without it. In certain forms, the Army has been using AI for a long time, for example in unmanned aircraft and land vehicles, robotic systems and software components. The Department of Military Robotics of the University of Defence in Brno is an expert base for simulations in the field of autonomous and robotic systems that carries out work for the benefit of the Army.
