WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s top general said yesterday that the United States military has to fully embrace robotics and artificial intelligence if it is to maintain superiority to China.
Joint Chiefs chairman General Mark Milley also said that the Pentagon needs smaller, more capable forces armed with long-range missiles posted more widely around Asia to hem in the top US adversary.
“We are in the middle of a fundamental change in the character of war,” Milley told the Defence Forum Washington online symposium at the US Naval Institute.
He cited the spread of precision-guided munitions, drones, and other robotic equipment, and advanced satellite communications, and said that those who master them best will be “decisive” in war.
“Our ability to sense is unbelievable. We can see the world today as you could never see it before.
“We can reach out and we can track, see, identify,” he said, adding that with long-range precision munitions, if you can see it, “you can hit it. This is fundamental. And this has a huge impact on the future of combat.”
“If you put in artificial intelligence and you do man-machine teaming, add that to robotics, put in precision munitions and the ability to sense and see, throw in a few hypersonic weapons, and you’ve got a fundamental shift” in the global battlefield, he said.
Milley said robotic weapons would be ubiquitous within 10 or 15 years, with China rapidly developing such capabilities.
“They would like to not only match us but exceed us, dominate us, be able to beat us in armed conflict by mid-century.” – AFP, December 4, 2020
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