{"id":29849,"date":"2020-01-14T20:53:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T20:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/14\/automation-doesnt-mean-soldiers-will-be-out-of-a-job-chief-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:49:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:49:36","slug":"automation-doesnt-mean-soldiers-will-be-out-of-a-job-chief-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/artificial-intelligence\/2020\/01\/14\/automation-doesnt-mean-soldiers-will-be-out-of-a-job-chief-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Automation doesn\u2019t mean soldiers will be out of a job, chief says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Automation doesn\u2019t mean soldiers will be replaced by machines, but it could mean they\u2019ll be working alongside them in future conflicts, the Army\u2019s chief of staff said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense budgets in the future are going to be pretty much flat, Gen. James McConville <\/a>said during a talk at the Atlantic Council. So the service will have to make every dollar count, and that could impact jobs like armor crewmen loading ammunition, maintainers on tracked vehicles, soldiers planning logistics and Rangers flying to the objective in a heavy-lift helicopter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people look at artificial intelligence<\/a> and machine learning and think we\u2019re going to have all autonomous vehicles or aircraft out there fighting the future fights,” McConville said. “I don\u2019t see it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I see, especially in the near term, is where we\u2019re going to be able to go to maybe more minimum manning \u2014 where we have less people in aircraft, less people in some of our armored vehicles,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future tank crews may not require a loader, for instance, just like the navigator role in aircraft has already become less necessary with GPS developments. Automated maintenance on vehicles, such as a robotic pit crew, also could handle tasks like changing out tracks that have fallen off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robots also aren\u2019t likely to be leading future fights from the front. Instead, McConville sees them as a major boon to the logistics and baggage train that the United States takes to every conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\t