Human-machine teams driven by AI are about to reshape warfare | Military - Lemmy.world
Some technology experts believe innovative commercial software developers now
entering the arms market are challenging the dominance of the traditional
defense industry, which produces big-ticket weapons, sometimes at glacial speed.
It is too early to say if big, human-crewed weapons like submarines or
reconnaissance helicopters will go the way of the battleship, which was rendered
obsolete with the rise of air power. But aerial, land and underwater robots,
teamed with humans, are poised to play a major role in warfare. Evidence of such
change is already emerging from the war in Ukraine. There, even rudimentary
teams of humans and machines operating without significant
artificial-intelligence powered autonomy are reshaping the battlefield. Simple,
remotely piloted drones have greatly improved the lethality of artillery,
rockets and missiles in Ukraine, according to military analysts who study the
conflict. Kathleen Hicks, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense, said in an Aug.
28 speech at a conference on military technology in Washington that traditional
military capabilities “remain essential.” But she noted that the Ukraine
conflict has shown that emerging technology developed by commercial and
non-traditional companies could be “decisive in defending against modern
military aggression.” A Reuters special report published today explores how
automation powered by artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize
weapons, warfare and military power. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces are
integrating traditional weapons with AI, satellite imaging and communications,
as well as smart and loitering munitions, according to a May report from the
Special Competitive Studies Project, a non-partisan U.S. panel of experts. The
battlefield is now a patchwork of deep trenches and bunkers where troops have
been “forced to go underground or huddle in cellars to survive,” the report
said. Some military strategists have noted that in this conflict, attack and
transport helicopters have become so vulnerable that they have been almost
forced from the skies, their roles now increasingly handed over to drones.
“Uncrewed aerial systems have already taken crewed reconnaissance helicopters
out of a lot of their missions,” said Mick Ryan, a former Australian army major
general who publishes regular commentaries on the conflict. “We are starting to
see ground-based artillery observers replaced by drones. So, we are already
starting to see some replacement.”
