What are Autonomous Weapon Systems?
Autonomous weapon systems—also referred to as Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS)—are a nascent class of military systems that, once activated, can independently conduct military missions without human intervention.
These systems incorporate advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to independently detect targets, navigate in combat environments, and make battlefield decisions.
Where are Autonomous Weapon Systems being used?
To date, there is no publicly available evidence indicating that countries have used fully autonomous weapon systems in combat.
Ukrainian forces have reportedly used AI-powered munitions capable of independently guiding themselves to targets, such as American-built Switchblade 300s and Switchblade 600s, in their war against Russia.
In addition, the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Libya noted that a Turkish-built Kargu 2 independently engaged combatants during Libya’s civil war in 2020.
But these systems are not fully autonomous; human operators are still required to select targets and issue commands, with autonomy confined to assisting in target recognition and navigation.
Future uses of Autonomous Weapon Systems
Many American defense officials believe that autonomous weapon systems are important to strengthen the United States’ conventional military deterrent against China. If Beijing decides to launch an attack against Taiwan, China’s People’s Liberation Army will likely use electronic and kinetic attacks to disrupt allied command and control networks, limiting U.S. forces’ ability to track targets and coordinate counterattacks. The United States could address this challenge, in part, through the deployment of autonomous weapon systems. Large swarms of attritable autonomous weapon systems could help U.S. forces reduce reliance on electronic links connecting unmanned platforms to human operators, offset the numerical superiority of the People’s Liberation Army, and execute attacks more efficiently and rapidly compared to manned systems.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks publicly announced the Replicator Initiative in August 2023. This effort has made significant progress in expediting the development of autonomous weapon systems across different warfighting domains, along with countermeasures against adversaries’ drones and autonomous weapon systems.