ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Machine learning and other artificial intelligence is likely to significantly expand military capabilities, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said June 21 during a Capitol Hill National Security Forum.

Thinking, data-chewing machines that may even be capable of emotion will be a major influence on the military, with the biggest question being how fast the new technology is available and how it is adapted to military uses, Milley said. “It will have fundamental impact,” he said.

Robotics and artificial intelligence will be in widespread use on the battlefield as soon as within the next decade, which is why the Army is investing in those technologies now, the Army’s top leaders told a Senate committee.

In recent testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley outlined a future scenario in which the Army will have manned and unmanned combat vehicles on the battlefield. There will be flexibility in how they are used, and they will provide better protection for soldiers.

The value of technology in achieving key Army warfighter capabilities will be the focus of presentations during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Ala.

Cutting-edge science and technology projects such as mind-controlled prosthetic devices, high-energy lasers and autonomous aerial ambulances.

Robotics and autonomous systems hold the possibility of restoring the technological edge of the U.S. Army over competitors.

The rotary wing aircraft of tomorrow will fly farther and faster, carry heavier payloads, have far more maneuverability and lethality, and be much smarter than today’s helicopters—and that tomorrow isn’t far off, according to several experts.

These new systems eventually will replace the Army’s current fleet of Black Hawks and Apaches, the experts said.

The Army Capabilities Integration Center, known as ARCIC, wants to sit down with big thinkers from industry and academia to talk about using science and technology to improve soldier performance, expanding robotics, modernizing combat vehicles and vertical lift, and making other leaps forward in warfare.

Soldiers could have laser and electromagnetic weapons in their hands within a decade, the Army chief of staff predicts.

U.S. military dominance “essentially went unchallenged” for about 25 years because of military technical superiority over every potential adversary, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said. Those days are over, he said at a hearing focused on funding research and innovation projects.

“We really believe that this is a time that we have to be very innovative and also very agile and try to identify any impediment that is standing in our way to test new advances,” Work told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee.

March 20, 2017

Innovations involving blood, location and energy were winners of the 2016 Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene Award for Innovation, according to an announcement made during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Ala.