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Gunners from the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire at Russian position with a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer 2C22 in the Kharkiv region on April 21, 2024. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
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US Army service members provide a small uncrewed aircraft system demonstration for Lithuanian Vice Minister of National Defense Karolis Aleksa and accompanying Lithuanian defense officials during a state partnership program visit to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 2025. (US Army National Guard photo)
Drones’ prominent role in the Russia-Ukraine War and air strikes across the Middle East have demonstrated that the future of warfare will be automated. Despite being the first to field robotic systems, the United States military has been slow to embrace autonomous capabilities at scale or take operators out of the decision-making loop. The Department of Defense’s hesitance is due, in part, to legitimate concerns about the reliability of automated capabilities. But adversaries like China or Russia may not share these concerns and are likely to deploy fully autonomous systems in future confrontations.
Senior Fellow Bryan Clark will sit down for a fireside chat with AeroVironment Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Wahid Nawabi about how the US military can realize these opportunities in autonomous systems. Then a panel of experts from the DoD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and the defense industry will discuss the way forward for autonomy in US command and control systems, weapons, and vehicles as well as the role of data in achieving these goals.
Agenda
9:00 a.m. | Fireside Chat
- Wahid Nawabi, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, AeroVironment
- Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology
9:35 a.m. | Panel 1
- Lindsey Sheppard, Director, Advanced Command and Control Accelerator, Chief Digital and AI Office, Department of Defense
- Scott Gilloon, Sector VP of Air Force Strategic Development, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
- Matt Macnak, Chief Technology Officer, Primer Technologies
Moderator
- Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology
10:25 a.m. | Panel 2
- Kevin Chlan, Senior Director for Air Dominance & Strike, Anduril Industries
- Rob Morrissey, Defense Programs, Palantir Technologies
- Dan Javorsek, President, EpiSci
Moderator
- Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology
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(School of War)
