AUVSI: Drones Won’t Replace Soldiers, But Empower Them

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As the U.S. military deals with the uncertain complexities of a future dependent on and driven by robotic technologies, the soldier of the future will have unprecedented precision capabilities, but also higher expectations than soldiers of the last generation. That’s one of several observations offered by General David Perkins at Xponential 2016, the AUVSI trade and technology show in New Orleans, on Tuesday. Perkins is head of the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine command, the agency charged with describing the future the military will have to operate in. “That’s describing, not predicting,” Perkins said.

In an engaging 40-minute talk, Perkins said that unlike in previous eras, when threats were better understood, the modern military faces the “unknown, the unknowable and the constantly changing.” He said that the while unmanned systems—aircraft and land vehicles—will be a necessary part of planning for that future, the larger issue is to develop a force culture that can innovate much faster than the enemies it may face, giving commanders not just technology, but multiple options that bridge simple access to weapons systems, whether automated or not. “In an unknown world, I don’t know what problems I’m going to have,” Perkins said. “That requires a completely different kind of organization than we’ve had in the past,” he added.

He said this level of innovative thinking is fundamentally reshaping the military, right down to redesigning basic training and rethinking how robotic systems fit into the force structure. Current thinking, according to Perkins, sees UAV-type technology at three levels of development: first as a tool, second as partner to the military people who will use such systems and last, in the longer term, as fully autonomous systems capable of machine learning. Still, he said, the Army’s prime goal is not autonomous technology, but leadership development. For the foreseeable future, soldiers won’t be replaced by robotic systems, but enhanced by them. This, he said, is reflective of an underlying culture that emphasizes constant innovation that doesn’t always mean new technology or high-dollar weapons systems.

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