The combination of artificial intelligence and unmanned aircraft systems has sped up modern warfare so drastically that NATO's top military officer says the alliance must keep innovating just to stay ahead. Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of NATO's Military Committee, said this shift is the main lesson the alliance has drawn from recent conflicts, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, where the pairing of drones and algorithms has accelerated combat operations to levels not seen before.
Speaking after a NATO meeting held on 19 May, Cavo Dragone said the joint ability of drones and algorithms to detect, track, analyze a target, strike and assess the damage in real time has sharply shortened the traditional lethal cycle of warfare. He said this process now cuts the time needed for the entire kill chain down to minutes, or perhaps even less, seconds.
Why unmanned aircraft speed up combat
This speed of processing and execution has made drones the most sought-after tool in modern warfare and the front line of any confrontation today, Cavo Dragone said. No country wants to put its soldiers at risk on the ground when part of a conflict can instead be settled using autonomous systems capable of launching and completing offensives.
For the chairman of NATO's Military Committee, this shift in conventional warfare is only a first step. He said drones represent a kind of revolutionary development on the battlefield, but stressed they will not be the only weapon used.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone chairs NATO's Military Committee, the alliance's senior military body responsible for advising on strategy and translating political decisions into military guidance. NATO groups 32 member states from North America and Europe under a mutual defense pact.
Cavo Dragone said the rapid evolution driven by algorithmic systems and their adaptation to unmanned aircraft marks the early stage of a progression whose next phases are difficult to predict. He said time is running very short.
Risk of faster escalation
Cavo Dragone also addressed the use of this technology by countries with more limited military capabilities that become involved in armed conflict. He said such states have to make use of everything they have, adding that he was not excusing anyone but trying to see things from their position. He suggested this dynamic can sometimes force countries to prioritize other concerns over diplomacy, pushing international politics into the background.
The rapid spread of intelligent systems and unmanned aircraft is pushing NATO to overhaul its operational protocols at speed, according to Cavo Dragone. He said the alliance must prepare for an international landscape in which tensions and military actions can escalate very quickly because of this new technology, which narrows the window for a response to spans of time in which there is barely any chance to react or repel an attack.
