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[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Yang Global Times Reporter Liu Yang] The rapidly developing wave of artificial intelligence (AI) has swept the world, and the armies of various countries have also been deeply affected. Many Western media have reported intensively recently, from the massive information processing and distribution of command centers to AI-controlled "loyal wingmen", these signs show that Europe and the United States are beginning to invest more and more in artificial intelligence in the field of national defense. Experts believe that the relevant developments deserve high attention.

File footage of the XQ-58A drone conducting formation testing with the US F-22 and F-35 fighter jets

Europe and the United States are developing a new generation of AI drones

The U.S. Defense News website stated on the 15th that the European continent’s "Future Combat Air System" (FCAS) is an ambitious plan to deploy a series of manned fighters and drones in the 2040s. The project may become the first large-scale defense plan to fully integrate artificial intelligence.

The report mentioned that the joint development team consisting of Germany, France, Spain and Belgium, which recently joined as an observer, promised to launch the first batch of flight-worthy demonstration prototypes to demonstrate this future concept. Although there are still few details about the appearance and specific functions of FCAS, European countries have invested considerable resources in it. Airbus spokesman Christian Doll said that Airbus alone has 1,400 researchers involved in the development of the project. Compared with existing platforms, the main innovation of FCAS is its use of so-called "loyal wingmen." The latter is an artificial intelligence-controlled drone that is responsible for working with manned fighters to enhance the ability to complete difficult tasks. They can help collect more data, provide more firepower, or simply overwhelm the enemy's defenses with numerical superiority.

Gross, chief engineer of Airbus, said that the collaborative work of manned aircraft and drones requires a complete redefinition of the role of pilots. He said that the pilot sitting in the cockpit of Europe's next-generation fighter is not just flying the fighter, but "really becoming a mission operator, possibly performing missions with manned or unmanned companions." In some cases, the traditional role of human pilots will be completely changed. For example, nominally manned fighters are actually flying completely autonomously, so that pilots can be freed from traditional flight tasks and focus on mission management.

The U.S. military's next-generation fighter jet program currently plans to form an unmanned wingman fleet consisting of 1,000 "cooperative combat aircraft" to cooperate with F-35A fighter jets or "next-generation air superiority" aircraft to perform air combat missions. These AI-controlled drones will not only undertake the coordination and cover missions of traditional wingmen, but may also use their "cheap advantage" to further perform more risky tasks such as forward reconnaissance, battlefield decoys, and dispersed firepower.

At the same time, the US Navy is also seeking to deploy a mixed fleet consisting of surface unmanned boats and underwater drones. Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, recently claimed that the US military will implement a plan called "Hellscape", planning to use drones, unmanned boats and unmanned submarines on a large scale in the Taiwan Strait in wartime.

This month, U.S. Navy Commander Mike Posey and U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Lushenko wrote an article titled "Framework for Maritime Unmanned Systems" on the U.S. Naval Institute website, stating that "the Navy needs a plan to guide its use of unmanned systems for distributed maritime operations and information warfare." They also proposed four application modes, namely "sentinel, distributed, large-scale, and human-machine collaboration," to provide a common framework for the U.S. Navy and joint forces to use unmanned systems at sea.

Retired Army General Milley, who served as the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Army, said at an event recently that the continuous development of artificial intelligence and unmanned technology may give rise to a robot army in the future. "My guess is that 10 to 15 years from now, one-third of the U.S. military, or one-quarter to one-third, will be robots."

Deep involvement in Pentagon management

In addition to these specific weapons projects, AI is also deeply involved in the actual management of the Pentagon. US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathryn Hicks announced the Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration Program just a few months after taking office in May 2021. The goal of the program is to help combat commands apply digital tools to operational concepts such as joint all-domain command and control and other key functions such as maintenance and logistics through experiments and exercises. As part of this work, the Pentagon has stationed teams of data scientists, engineers, and programmers in 11 combat commands. These experts are tasked with assessing the digital readiness of each command and providing feedback on where the Department of Defense should invest to speed up progress.

The teams have been "hugely successful," Radha Plame, the Pentagon's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, said during a recent visit to the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Plame also said that the Department of Defense's working group exploring the use of generative AI will help officials develop guidelines and identify infrastructure needs for emerging capabilities. The program, called the Lima Task Force, was launched in August last year for an 18-month period with the stated goal of helping the department use artificial intelligence "in a responsible and strategic way." Plame said at an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think tank, that the working group is currently "providing her with advice" and that the guidelines will help understand what guidelines and safeguards need to be in place when starting to test and use generative AI.

Worthy of high attention

Liu Wei, director of the Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Engineering Laboratory of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 17th that the various plans of the United States and Europe emphasizing the militarization of AI involve a mentality of not losing momentum and taking the initiative externally, while also suppressing opponents, highlighting advantages through false and real means; internally, it urges the corresponding research to be accelerated, further strengthen the pace of military intelligence, show strength to allies, and enhance cohesion; on the premise of creating technological pressure on opponents, it is conducive to accelerating the formulation of relevant top-level standards and laws, so as to gain an overwhelming advantage in related aspects.

Liu Wei believes that the progress of projects involving human-AI teaming or human-machine collaboration, represented by "loyal wingman", intelligent teams, and future command and control systems, should be paid close attention to. This is the core and trend of global military intelligence, and is also the direction in which the US military continues to focus its efforts.

Regarding the view recently mentioned by former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley that "by 2039, one-third of the US military will be robots", Liu Wei believes that the teaming of humans and robots is the development trend of future military intelligence. The robots here include not only humanoid robots, but also more non-humanoid robots. However, from the perspective of underlying science and technology, there should still be great difficulties, which requires the development of new basic disciplines and more and greater cross-disciplinary integration.