House authorizers eye autonomous systems

As the Pentagon continues to examine autonomy and the role of manned-unmanned teaming, the House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee heard from service leaders today on concerns and challenges associated with the new technology.

During Thursday's hearing, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Unmanned Systems Frank Kelley told lawmakers that one of the biggest concerns about autonomous systems revolves around the ethical and moral implications of how the systems are going to be used.

Kelley -- who was flanked by Greg Zacharias, the Air Force's chief scientist, and Jonathan Bornstein, the Autonomous System Division chief for the Army Research Laboratory's Vehicle Technology Directorate -- also noted that one of the biggest challenges with autonomous systems is that it is hard to test all potential scenarios that could be encountered. Kelley noted, however, that any potential autonomous system will have a cyber element to it to make sure adversaries cannot hack the system and take it over.

Earlier this month, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work laid out the basic vision for the Pentagon's planned fiscal year 2017 investments in the so-called "third offset" innovation strategy, saying that human-machine collaboration is at the heart of most internal budgetary discussions on the matter.

"Let me tell you what the big idea really is about: It's about human-machine collaboration and combat teaming," he said Nov. 7 during the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi Valley, CA. Work, who has discussed the importance of human-machine collaboration in the past, said the Defense Department's new commitment to investments in that area were heavily informed by the ongoing Long Range Research and Development Plan and a summer study on autonomous systems conducted by the Defense Science Board.

In October, the Pentagon's Air Warfare Deputy Director Ed Wolski pointed to autonomy as a major challenge, noting that the technology is outpacing the policy development.

And the Pentagon's top weapons tester recently advised the Defense Science Board that autonomous systems need to be tested in very realistic settings. Speaking Aug. 19 at a test and evaluation symposium, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation J. Michael Gilmore said that he was invited to speak with the Defense Science Board, which was meeting to discuss weapon system autonomy and examine the relevant science, engineering and policy challenges the U.S. military must overcome.

Gilmore said there were concerns that autonomy would be a "great challenge" for the testing community, but said that it does not need to be that way. However, he stressed that autonomous systems that could have the ability to learn and change must be tested in very realistic settings.