Germany's army chief says AI, drones reshaping warfare

The future battlefield will be dominated by artificial intelligence (AI), drones, and digital command systems, but tanks and soldiers will remain indispensable for holding territory, Germany's top army commander said on Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Christian Freuding said the German armed forces must rapidly improve capabilities in five key areas to adapt to the changing character of warfare.

Speaking to The Economist, Freuding identified indirect fires and long-range strike capabilities, air defense, electromagnetic warfare, manned-unmanned teaming, and AI-enabled command and control as priorities for Germany's land forces.

"We need AI-enabled command and control capabilities," he said, arguing that modern militaries can no longer rely on humans alone to process the vast amount of information generated on the battlefield.

"It's not about getting information and then handling some mass of information, and I don't think that this can be a human task anymore. You're far too slow for that," he said.

According to Freuding, future military operations will depend on digital networks capable of collecting, processing and exploiting battlefield data through artificial intelligence to accelerate decision-making.

"You need data backbone, a digital backbone to assemble all this information... all this data, and then exploit it by using artificial intelligence," he said.

Freuding also said the role of the tank would evolve rather than disappear, describing future armored vehicles as command hubs for teams of autonomous systems.

"A tank must become a kind of command and control center, kind of mothership," he said, adding that armored vehicles would direct ground robots and unmanned systems while retaining their traditional direct-fire role in close combat situations.

The German commander rejected the idea of a fully autonomous battlefield, insisting that human soldiers would remain responsible for the use of force.

"At the end of the day, there's a human decision-maker," he said. "I think there is no way that we will see a completely unmanned battlefield in the future."