ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Unmanned ground vehicles have made the transition from science fiction to reality, with platforms already proving their value to land forces. 

There are limits, though, on how fast progress can be made. Alexander Kott, an Army Research Laboratory scientist specializing in cyber resiliency, said the only limit on unmanned systems will be the speed of advances in science and technology. He said transformational, game-changing unmanned systems can be expected. 

Chris Brose, author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, will speak Aug. 10 as part of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Thought Leaders webinar series.

The presentation begins at 10 a.m. Eastern time. The event is free, but registration is required.

In his book, Brose examines how artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and other emerging technologies will define the future battlefield—and warns that the U.S. must adapt and respond in order to remain the world’s dominant military power.

A new Land Warfare Paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army focuses on how armed robotic systems would operate under the Army’s strict command and control doctrine.

Written by international security and counterterrorism expert Robert Bunker, an adjunct professor at the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, the paper looks at how decision-making by machines is different than decisions made by humans. Machines don’t have morals or emotions, he writes, “nor do they understand honor, integrity or self-sacrifice.”

Robotics, automation and artificial intelligence may be a big part of future warfare, but human factors—not machine learning—will determine the outcome of war, said Brig. Gen. Miles Brown of the U.S. Army Futures Command’s Futures and Concepts Center.

Success in autonomous vehicles would be having a dozen spoof-proof Next-Generation Combat Vehicles operated by one human, according to Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, who leads the cross-functional team searching for vehicles that can provide more range, function and lethal punch on the battlefield.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper sees the landscape for artificial intelligence capabilities through the eyes of a young Army infantry officer during the First Gulf War.

Soldiers fighting alongside robots on future battlefields will build trust with their unmanned comrades only if they understand why the machine is doing what it’s doing.

Unmanned systems on the battlefield are an inevitable consequence of the rise in lethal, precision weapons that make human survival unlikely, said former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work.

Speaking April 24 at a Mad Scientist Conference in Austin, Texas, Work said the U.S. won’t be able to recruit or afford a force large enough to fight in future megacity combat and won’t be able to protect soldiers who could be deployed.

The application of artificial intelligence to solving battlefield challenges runs a risk of making it harder on commanders, warns Peter Schwartz, the lead enterprise systems engineer for the MITRE Corp.