Technology touches every part of our lives today. As technology rapidly evolves and proliferates, it is shaping the modern battlefield into a technology-defined environment. This has kicked off a global race for dominance, with the U.S. and major competitors prioritizing innovative technology development to maintain military advantage. Integrating emerging technologies into military forces is a becoming a key focus to enhance defense readiness and effectiveness. As peer adversaries worldwide make steady progress in developing advanced military technologies, technological superiority is a must to assert digital dominance and win the wars of the future.
Military forces recognize that they can no longer rely on traditional sources of military advantage and are investing heavily in the research and development of emerging military technologies. The U.S. and its key competitors, Russia and China, have devised modernization strategies which leverage a wide range of technologies, including advanced computing, “big data” analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, robotics, directed energy, hypersonics, and biotechnology, and quantum technology. However, AI is a central focus in the military’s goal to become a global superpower, which is evident by the billions of dollars the U.S. and its competitors have allocated to AI research and development. The key driver for this strategy is to harness the power of AI for critical capabilities, such as intelligence analysis, predictive maintenance, information warfare, and navigation and target recognition in autonomous vehicles.
Each nation’s military strategy focuses on a different application of AI. For example, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has established various AI mission initiatives, including predictive maintenance, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, warfighter health, and business process transformation. On the other hand, China’s AI strategies focus on language and facial recognition capabilities for surveillance which will aid military targeting, specifically in the undersea domain. Russia’s AI applications includes a heavy emphasis on autonomous vehicles for target identification and engagement. Military forces define specific goals and utility as they implement new technologies.
Beyond implementing new technologies, it is imperative that military strategies also reinforce the workforce. The U.S. DoD recognizes the need to train and recruit talent for the technology to be fully effective. Deputy Chief Information Officer for Information Enterprise, Danielle Metz, shares, "If we had all the money in the world to buy the best technology and we had the right processes in place to be able to get the needed technology at the time of consumption, but our workforce and our warfighters did not know how to use the technology to be able to execute their mission, we failed." Military forces must take a holistic approach to implementing new technologies.
In this new era of warfare, innovative technologies are of increasing value to military operations, as superior technology will define its strength. Militaries with superior technology and enhanced warfighting capabilities will have a significant advantage over a numerically stronger, but technologically inferior, opponent. The U.S. and its competitors are specifically focusing on AI to establish technological superiority as AI’s critical input strengthens military power. As the global race for digital dominance continues, militaries must constantly update and adapt new technologies to stay ahead of the curve and leverage its disruptive capabilities.
