AI Targeting and the Autonomous Battlefield

These academic sources investigate the strategic and tactical integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) within modern military frameworks. The first text provides a comparative analysis of the United States and China, detailing how both nations utilize military-civilian fusion and specialized agencies like DARPA or the Information Support Force to seek technological dominance. It emphasizes that while the U.S. prioritizes human-in-the-loop ethics, China’s "intellectualization" strategy explores higher levels of autonomous decision-making to accelerate combat operations. The second source focuses on the technical evolution of robotic platforms, categorizing them by weight and autonomy while identifying current limitations in terrain navigation and combat identification. Together, the documents highlight a global shift toward "smart warfare," where the successful deployment of semi-autonomous systems and human-machine collaboration will likely redefine the future global balance of power. Progress in these fields remains driven by a security dilemma, as powers race to implement disruptive technologies before their adversaries.