Unmanned vehicles “are going to change the way we fight our wars,” according to Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, Director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) – Cross Functional Team (CFT), U.S. Army Futures Command.

Among the many ways this technology could help soldiers on the battlefield is by taking them out of precarious situations and conducting dangerous operations.

While robots will not save the number of people needed, they “will save the people you have by managing risks,” Coffman said during his keynote address on the final day of AUVSI Unmanned Systems Defense. Protection. Security in Washington.

There is no shortage of ways that unmanned systems — be it in the air or on the ground — can help the warfighter, but Coffman said he doesn’t believe these systems should have full autonomy.

“I don’t want the machine to do whatever the machine wants to do, I want it to do exactly what I told it it can or cannot,” Coffman said. “They must follow our rules.”

‘Need better than our potential adversaries’

Unmanned systems will play an integral role in the future battlefield; one where information is aggregated onto a common interface where everyone on the battlefield can see it, Coffman said. A machine will then determine a recommended course of action for humans to decide which assets have the highest probability to kill for that particular threat.

At the core of the fight is a machine-assisted, enemy common operating picture that is aggregated and seen across the battlefield, Coffman said. In their hands, soldiers will have a common interface where they will have a range of options presented to them by machines. The information will be generated largely by air and ground systems.

“I’m a ground guy, I’m focused there,” Coffman said. “However, I love anything in the air that can help. This is an important space.”

Coffman noted that while his friends, and many in the public, think that the goal is to develop autonomous systems that kill what they are programmed to kill, he actually wants to do quite the opposite.

“We’re turning existing vehicles into robots to conduct experiments,” Coffman said, to determine how they’re going to fight with robots in the future.

According to Coffman, who has been charged with the task of leading the effort to build three classes of experimental vehicles for army decision, the robots will be controlled by the manned control vehicle. Right now, the thinking is that there will be two individuals per one robot, but Coffman wants to get to a place where there will be 12 robots that can be controlled by one human.
 
"I think that's very doable," he said. "When? I don't know. I'm putting 2025 out there, but it could be sooner."

The vehicles will be payload agnostic, semi-autonomous, and be able to be equipped with various sensors and weapon systems, as well as UAVs. They will be tested and put through the paces to solve a variety of problems.

The hardest problem being encountered right now, Coffman said, is the distance between the robot and the control vehicle. Coffman would like there to be a distance of at least three kilometers, but right now they’re at about 1.1 or 1.2 kilometers, which is still extremely beneficial.

At the end of the day, Coffman said he will always want more, but he noted perfection is not the goal.

“We don’t need perfection, we need better than our potential adversaries.”