Newly minted Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has a bold vision for our nation’s military forces, and AUVSI has found many aspects of this new stance to celebrate.
 
A career civil servant with significant defense policy experience, she is our nation’s first female Deputy Secretary of Defense. Most important among her stated priorities include modernizing the country’s military forces, with an emphasis on autonomous systems and artificial intelligence.
 
This goal came to light in a recent memo she wrote about the limited time the Pentagon has to review its Fiscal Year (FY)2022 budget. With the change in presidential administrations, Hicks and Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin must re-evaluate what former Pres. Trump’s team put together and present a final product to Pres. Biden as soon as possible. Thus, this memo details that all DOD programs will be measured against three key criteria: “investments to deter aggression in the Pacific"; "acceleration options" for developing more autonomous and "remotely crewed systems"; and identifying "near-term options" for getting rid of older aircraft and ships.
 
The second criteria of course stood out to AUVSI, as we represent member companies heavily engaged with and supportive of the U.S. Armed Forces. Autonomous and remotely crewed technologies have already proven their worth on the battlefield, from a supply and logistics viewpoint to allowing a safer environment from which to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) duties.
 
We welcome the clear directive from Dep. Sec. Hicks in that autonomous systems across every domain have a critical role to play in Pentagon programs, and in fact should play a greater one. AUVSI and our member companies look forward to continuing to support increased autonomous technology deployment throughout the military branches and will keep noses to the grindstone in pursuit of more advanced and efficient technology.