United States, China, Europe, the largest armies in the world are preparing for the era of weapons capable of operating autonomously. This summer, the US Air Force increased testing of a new type of drone, the Valkyrie, intended to operate jointly with piloted aircraft such as the F-35. At the Pentagon, the military swears that, whatever the autonomy capacity of a weapons system, the decision to fire will always fall to humans.
But this posture is contradicted by technological advances and the uses that are envisaged, such as aerial combat where hesitation is not allowed and reactivity is essential. And then, the doctrine seems to be evolving: defenders of autonomous weapons emphasize their advantages: speed of decision-making, reliability and no emotional interference linked to the stress of combat. In other words, it is difficult to see how to avoid land, sea and air weapons, capable of identifying targets with precision and, in certain cases, destroying them without human intervention.
A man knows these questions well. For three years, Nicolas Chaillan managed all IT for the US Air Force and US Space Command, from the F-35 fighter to spy satellites, including the Pentagon’s most secret programs. He ruled over a legion of 100,000 engineers and technicians, four times more than at Google.
In this episode of Control F, he talks to us about smart weapons, cooperation between the military and the private sector and the technological sophistication of the Chinese army which remains his obsession.
Listen to this episode and subscribe to Control F on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Deezer, Google Podcast And Amazon Music.
The team: Frédéric Filloux (presentation) and Jules Krot (editing and production)
Music and design: Léonard Filloux
Logo: Jérémy Cambour / L’Express
Image credit: Philippe Clément / Belga via AFP
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