U.S. Army Wargames: When You Reinforce Foot Soldiers With Drones And Ground Robots You Get A 10–Fold Increase In Combat Power

An 82nd Airborne soldier trains with a Black Hornet mini-drone before deploying to Afghanistan.

Breaking Defense: AI & Robots Crush Foes In Army Wargame

A simulated infantry platoon, reinforced with drones and ground robots, repeatedly routed defending forces three times its size — without losing a single human soldier. Would this work in real life?

WASHINGTON: How big a difference does it make when you reinforce foot troops with drones and ground robots? You get about a 10–fold increase in combat power, according to a recent Army wargame.

“Their capabilities were awesome,” said Army Capt. Philip Belanger, a Ranger Regiment and Stryker Brigade veteran who commanded a robot-reinforced platoon in nearly a dozen computer-simulated battles at the Fort Benning’s Maneuver Battle Lab. “We reduced the risk to US forces to zero, basically, and still were able to accomplish the mission.”

That mission: dislodge a defending company of infantry, about 120 soldiers, with a single platoon of just 40 attackers on foot. That’s a task that would normally be assigned to a battalion of over 600. In other words, instead of the minimum 3:1 superiority in numbers that military tradition requires for a successful attack, Belanger’s simulated force was outnumbered 1:3.

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Update: Robots humble US Army in wargames (Asia Times)

WNU Editor: This is going to be the future of ground combat.