{"id":10217,"date":"2021-09-16T19:16:37","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T19:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/09\/16\/uks-future-force-to-lean-heavily-into-robotics-ai-and-hybrid-power\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:55:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:55:55","slug":"uks-future-force-to-lean-heavily-into-robotics-ai-and-hybrid-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/unmanned\/robotics\/2021\/09\/16\/uks-future-force-to-lean-heavily-into-robotics-ai-and-hybrid-power\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s future force to lean heavily into robotics, AI and hybrid power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/dsei\/2021\/09\/15\/british-army-chief-talks-taliban-tiktok-and-the-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\">British Army<\/a> is leaning heavily into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/dsei\/2021\/09\/15\/northrop-leonardo-take-the-plunge-together-for-future-unmanned-rotorcraft-efforts\/\" target=\"_blank\">robotics, artificial intelligence<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/dsei\/2021\/09\/13\/iai-debuts-new-hybrid-ground-robot-joining-the-uk-army-inventory\/\" target=\"_blank\">hybrid-power technology<\/a> as part of a new acquisition process dubbed Mercury, according to a British Army leader involved in future procurement planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/unmanned\/robotics\/2019\/01\/11\/why-the-british-army-tested-robots-in-muddy-fields\/\" target=\"_blank\">grappling with how to acquire technologies<\/a> that it believes it will need in the future, how to spiral in those technologies across its equipment programs and how to cultivate skills in its soldiers to use capabilities as they come online, Col. Christopher Coton, the service\u2019s assistant head for concepts, said at the DSEI defense exhibition in London on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Driving innovation to achieve its goals, the Army must better identify technologies that will likely change the way the service operates and fights, Coton said. This would be done by drawing on traditional and nontraditional suppliers, the officer added, and the service needs to better articulate what it needs to both small and large companies capable of helping to co-develop technology along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mercury is one part of the approach, Coton said, and represents \u201chow we will protect our soldiers, our vehicles and our formations in the future beyond 2035.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The effort is based on two key tenants, he said. The first is the Army expects combat power to be increasingly dispersed across the battlefield. The second is that it expects the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/interviews\/2021\/05\/24\/uk-army-chief-talks-green-energy-countering-russia-and-digital-modernization\/\" target=\"_blank\">increasing electrification of vehicles<\/a> in the land fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo retain that idea of mutual support between human entities and that dispersed force, we think we\u2019ll have to off-board protection; protection that has historically and traditionally been integral to the platforms themselves and in that we will harness<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/industry\/techwatch\/2021\/09\/10\/israeli-british-firms-to-deliver-unmanned-vehicles-for-uk-experimental-program\/\" target=\"_blank\"> technologies such as robotics, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning<\/a>,\u201d and a variety of novel effectors and sensors, Coton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs they emerge throughout this decade and into the next, you will see a bubble of systemic protection that will rely on a constellation of subsystems that will preempt and neutralize enemy threats before they\u2019re able to have an effect on the human element of the system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea is \u201cdeliberately nebulous,\u201d he noted. \u201cIn fact, we think one of the strengths of the Mercury idea is that that goal is nebulous because it allows us to shape it over the proceeding decade. It allows us to develop the ideas with industry along this common theme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Key to the relationship with industry, Coton noted, will be a commercial framework that the Army is developing with industry. \u201cWe don\u2019t underestimate the challenge of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another aspect of Mercury will focus on experimental activity in the short term that will help the Army realize \u201clong-term aspiration,\u201d Coton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, at DSEI, the Army ran a technical demonstration where it retrofitted combat vehicles with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/opinion\/commentary\/2021\/08\/09\/uk-to-adapt-military-to-changing-climate-but-does-it-have-the-funds-and-backing-of-troops\/\" target=\"_blank\">hybrid electric<\/a> drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re using these vehicles to form then a surrogate for future experimentation, the development of networks, the tethering of drones, [unmanned ground vehicles], [unmanned air vehicles], and of course \u2026 effectors and sensors as they mature throughout the decade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That experimentation will take place in the Army\u2019s BattleLab in Dorset, according to Coton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Complementing Mercury is the service\u2019s Army Warfighting Experiment, which \u201cseeks to broaden that aperture of innovation and invention to look at technologies and capabilities, to experiment with them and capture a wide array of technological innovation to better prepare the Army more generally for complex future warfare,\u201d Coton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2021 experiment will take place next month. In subsequent years, from 2022 through 2024, Coton said, the event will focus on the urban environment and how to exploit technologies and experiment with capabilities pertinent to that environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new program Mercury, run by the British Army, will help shape the force for battlefields beyond 2035.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":56,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[6,106,29,32,56,21],"tags":[8528],"coauthors":[3286],"class_list":["post-10217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-robotics","category-unmanned","tag-united-kingdom"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"56SLMTUU4FAGBAIGJDMWCGMXLA","arc_canonical_url":"\/digital-show-dailies\/dsei\/2021\/09\/16\/uks-future-force-to-lean-heavily-into-robotics-ai-and-hybrid-power\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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