The government’s just announced A$3.4 billion defence innovation “accelerator” will aim to get cutting-edge military technologies, including hypersonic missiles, directed energy weapons and autonomous vehicles, into service sooner.
It also looks set to be developing many more technologies like this in the future. And under the sea, Australia is building a prototype six metre-long Ghost Shark uncrewed submarine. On the sea, the defence force has been testing a new type of uncrewed surveillance vessel called the Bluebottle, developed by local company Ocius. Our air force expects to acquire a number of 12 metre-long uncrewed Ghost Bat aircraft to ensure our very expensive F-35 fighter jets aren’t made sitting ducks by advancing technologies. And all of this raises the question: why has the government’s recent defence strategic review failed to seriously consider the implications of AI-enabled warfare? AI has crept into Australia’s militaryĪustralia already has a range of autonomous weapons and vessels that can be deployed in conflict. We also see this revolution occurring in our own forces in Australia. We’ve seen the beginnings of this in Ukraine, where sophisticated armed home-made drones are being developed, where Russia is using AI “smart” mines that explode when they detect footsteps nearby, and where Ukraine successfully used autonomous “drone” boats in a major attack on the Russian navy at Sevastopol. Small, cheap and increasingly capable uncrewed systems will replace large, expensive, crewed weapon platforms. AI will cut through the “fog of war”, transforming where and how we fight. Wars could be ended with just a single weapon, and life as we know it could be ended by a single nuclear stockpile.Īnd now, war has – like so many other aspects of life – entered the age of automation. Then came the invention of the nuclear bomb, raising the stakes higher than ever. It’s uncontroversial to claim gunpowder completely transformed how we fought war. It gave us muskets, rifles, machine guns and, eventually, all manner of explosive ordnance. The first was the invention of gunpowder by people in ancient China. Historians of war have identified several technological revolutions. Throughout history, war has been irrevocably changed by the advent of new technologies.
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