Interview, Fireside Chat
Germany’s army chief on AI, drones and the future of the tank | The Economist
- German land forces plan to rapidly enhance capabilities in five specific domains: indirect fires up to deep strike, tactical deep strike (100–300 km, extending up to 1,000 km), counter-UAS, electromagnetic warfare, and AI-enabled command and control.
- Modernization efforts aim to balance legacy systems with emerging technologies, requiring both long-range/medium-range combat capabilities and direct fire for future tanks designed as command centers and motherships for ground robots.
- The future battlefield will feature ubiquitous sensors across air, ground, and space domains, necessitating a digital backbone and artificial intelligence to process data volumes that are currently too slow for human handling.
- Deployment of AI-supported drones is expected on modern battlefields, while human decision-makers must remain in the loop to judge actions and exploit firepower, ruling out a completely unmanned environment.
- Development of platforms, data backbone systems, and decision-support tools is prioritized for extremely fast implementation to integrate new systems and accelerate decision-making cycles compared to previous years.