The United States has announced the creation of a new military command dedicated to developing and supplying autonomous and robotic systems across the armed forces.
US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced the initiative on Wednesday during his “State of the Force” address to junior officers and enlisted personnel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
The new command, to be known as the Autonomous Warfare Command, will focus on emerging military technologies, including drones and artificial intelligence, amid changes in the nature of modern warfare.
Hegseth said the command would be headed by a four-star officer, adding that the military needed to adapt more quickly to technological changes.
“The pace of war is changing faster than the process to support it,” Hegseth said.
He added, “Cheap compute, superintelligence, and advanced commercial manufacturing have enabled the proliferation of low-cost, high-precision strike.”
The Pentagon currently has 11 combatant commands responsible for different regions of the world and specific military tasks.
The creation of a new command is considered uncommon, with the last such command, the US Space Command, established in 2019.
The development comes as the US military seeks to expand its use of cheaper autonomous systems, with the war in Ukraine highlighting the growing role of drones in modern combat.
According to estimates cited by Reuters, drones account for about 70 per cent of Russian casualties in the conflict, as unmanned systems have increasingly been used for reconnaissance and attacks.
The Pentagon has also established Joint Interagency Task Force 401 to focus on countering drones.
Experts have warned that the rapid development of military artificial intelligence could increase security risks, with the United States and China at the centre of global competition over advanced AI technologies.
