Robotic Missiles: Army Fires Unmanned mobile HIMARS rockets

Video Above: Army Futures Command Breaks Through with Robotics, AI Enabled War

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

Upon initial examination, the prospect of a mobile, robotic missile launcher might cause some alarm, given that technology is evolving to the point where autonomous weapons systems have the ability to maneuver in combat while sensing, tracking, targeting and even destroying an enemy without human intervention.

However, this is a dynamic the US Army is well aware of and has been tracking for many years, to ensure technological progress does not outpace military doctrine.

There will not be a Terminator soon.

Therefore, the most pressing and important element for the Army and other military services, when it comes to weapons and autonomy, is the continued priority that any and all decisions regarding the use of lethal force are to be left to humans. It is upon this premise the weapons developers continue to quickly advance autonomy within a certain key conceptual framework, referred to as manned-unmanned teaming or human-machine interface. The idea is to leverage the best attributes of both human cognition and machine-enabled autonomy to optimize combat effectiveness in an integrated way.

“The guidance that we’ve received from our most senior leaders is to use capabilities like artificial intelligence, or advanced robotics, to augment soldiers, not necessarily to replace them,” Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, Director, Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team, Army Futures Command, told Warrior in an interview.