Congress hears testimony on future of warfighter and autonomous defense systems

News

November 25, 2015

Mariana Iriarte

Technology Editor

Military Embedded Systems

U.S. Air Force photo/ Senior Airman Hailey Haux

WASHINGTON. Before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Greg L. Zacharias – the U.S Air Force chief scientist – testified on autonomy in future defense systems and the goal to have effective teams of humans and machines working together.

“We seek the right balance of human and machine teaming to meet future operational challenges, by combining increasingly capable hardware and software systems, with unique human abilities in perception, judgment, and innovation,” says Zacharias. “Boiled down to its essentials, the Air Force’s autonomy science and technology vision is: intelligent machines seamlessly integrated with humans, maximizing mission performance in complex and contested environments.”

According to his testimony, there are three strategic objectives embedded in this vision. The first objective is to develop sensors and data gathering technology that can provide information for a system to understand its operating environment and mission goals. The second objective is to develop reasoning systems and software environments to assess situations and make recommendations or decisions. The final objective is to refine ways of carrying out those recommendations and decisions.

“The payoffs include a greater ability to prevail in an increasingly tested environment, over greater ranges and time spans, protection of Airmen in dangerous and harsh environments while increasing mission effectiveness, reducing the time to conduct time-critical operations, providing increased levels of reliability, persistence, and resilience, and finally reducing manning costs,” Zacharias says.

Zacharias gave his testimony on November 18, at the Capital Hill.