The U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division recently put artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies through their paces during a military exercise, probing both what these tools can do and where they fall short, according to DefenseScoop.
The exercise tested capabilities including attack drones and unmanned ground vehicles alongside AI, as the unit worked to put "steel" between soldiers and a breach, per DefenseScoop's reporting.
A central theme of the training was that technology should support soldiers rather than replace their core skills. "The focus of the training has got to be on the fundamentals of warfighting," said Col. Ryan Bell, as quoted by DefenseScoop. Technology, he added, "has to enable them, and they still have to be able to fight without it."
That framing points to a deliberate balance the Army appears to be striking: adopting AI and autonomous systems while ensuring troops can still operate effectively if those systems fail, are jammed, or are otherwise unavailable in combat.
Why it matters: As militaries race to fold AI into how they fight, the 101st Airborne's approach signals that human warfighting fundamentals — not the technology itself — remain the priority, a reminder that automation is being treated as a tool to augment soldiers rather than a substitute for them.