Several new Army formations will focus on autonomous warfare as the service continues its push to adopt battlefield drones.
Each corps will test equipment, evaluate tactics and recommend ways to carry out autonomous missions across long-range fires, protection, tanks, logistics and obstacle breaching, the service said. The new autonomy formations include a fires battery and watercraft company in I Corps, an armored reconnaissance company in III Corps, a breaching company in V Corps, and aerial reconnaissance and lift companies in XVIII Airborne Corps.
“We will make intentional investments for modern capabilities that can be scaled and directly contribute to how the Army fights within the joint force,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the service’s acting chief, said in a keynote Tuesday.
The new formations will report back to Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM), an Army branch that will manage daily drone operations around the globe. The organization began as Futures and Concepts Command in February but was renamed Tuesday to align with the Pentagon’s Autonomous Warfare Command, a new functional combatant command Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proposed in September.
That creates a dedicated advocate for drones and automation at the Army’s highest levels, with a direct line to commanders worldwide who need those capabilities.
Lt. Gen. Mac McCurry, who leads the new Army command, said his team will brainstorm how to quickly adopt the technology without getting bogged down in the process of formally incorporating new tools into Army missions and tactics.
“Too often, we jump right to material, so I’m kind of focused on the mission,” he said during a panel discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington. “What are the missions we want autonomy to do? How do they contribute to the combined arms team and winning the fight?”
High on McCurry’s list for bots are dull, dirty and dangerous tasks as well as those that help humans make decisions faster. Soldiers will remain the “central element” on future battlefields, he said.
That could range from taking on the mapping and explosives legwork troops do when preparing to breach a fortified building to deploying swarms of unmanned aircraft instead of jeopardizing more expensive assets and the humans inside them.
“I envision that a soldier will be continually partnered with, protected by or informed through these technologies with varying levels of autonomy … to enable soldiers, to enhance soldiers, to protect soldiers and make them more effective,” he said.
Or, as Army Chief Technology Officer Alex Miller put it: “People are squishy meat creatures. We have to do things certain ways to protect our people. An autonomous breach looks radically different … because it can.”
Brig. Gen. Tony Gibbs, the Army’s top program executive for autonomy, cautioned that anything the service deploys needs to be able to share its data and avoid making soldiers’ jobs harder. He pointed to recent tests where robots miscalculated and ended up rolling over or getting stuck in mud; 1 in 5 of the missions ended in an emergency stop.
“There’s some things that it’s very good at, and we need to get the technology out there in formations to do those things … but understanding the limitations,” he said.
Adopting new tools prompts fresh questions about ripple effects like mission planning, maintenance and training. LaNeve said the structure of the force will evolve as it incorporates autonomous and unmanned systems at every level.
To help, the service has designated Alabama’s Fort Rucker, its aviation training hub, as its Unmanned Aerial Systems Autonomy Center of Excellence. An upcoming test spurred by Rucker will let attack helicopter pilots control drone sensors to find faraway targets and synchronize strikes.
In another step toward structural change, some of the first soldiers trained as robotic technicians will join the experimental formations. Officials said the new formations will help work through force structure questions and other real-world issues without disrupting core functions of Army units.
“My [executive officer] and I were walking, and a Coco robot rolled across, little food delivery robot, in one of the most complex environments that we have: people, cars, Maryland drivers, people with cell phones,” Miller said. “If a Coco robot can make its way and deliver goods and services from one place to another, surely your Army can figure this out.”
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