Top US general predicts much of world’s armies, navies and air forces ‘will be robotic’ in 15 years, perhaps sooner

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley says technology is changing the ways wars are being fought

He said that robots will play a huge role in the world’s armies, navies, and air forces within the next decade or so

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Published: 1:25pm, 22 Mar 2023Updated: 1:31pm, 22 Mar 2023

Technology is changing the ways that war is being fought, and the top US general predicts this will lead to an increasing use of robots in armies, navies, and air forces.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told the Eurasia Group Foundation on a podcast that the world is undergoing a “fundamental change” in the “character of war”.

Unlike the “nature of war”, which Milley described to mean human dynamics and intra-country relationships, he clarified that the character of the war incorporates items like tactics, weapons, technologies, organisations, and management.

“Character of war changes frequently. It changes every time you have a new weapon and so on,” Milley said in the podcast, which aired Tuesday. “But fundamentally, it only changes once in a while. Today we are undergoing the most significant and most fundamental change in the character of war. And it’s really, this time, being driven by technology.”

He pointed out that sensing capabilities have changed the way militaries strike, arguing that the “ability to hit with precision munitions is unlike anything humans have ever witnessed before”.

America’s highest-ranking military officer specifically emphasised the role of robots and said that the US and many of the world’s advanced militaries have been experimenting with uncrewed ships and tanks.