Page 19 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS LAND FORCES 2022 19
ALTHOUGH the much-anticipated (and long awaited) Land 400 Phase 3 announcement did not eventuate at the show, there was nevertheless plenty to talk about and a lot of news to report.
The ADM team was on the ground in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) to bring you the news behind the news.
HLC MAJOR GENERAL JEREMY KING
SPEAKS TO ADM
As Head Land Capability, Major General Jeremy King helps shape Army’s capability priorities and decisions. He sat down with ADM during Land Forces to answer a few questions on the challenges facing Army as it competes for funding in the wider Defence budget and fights its case to acquire 450 infantry fighting vehicles.
WHAT ARE THE CAPABILITY CHALLENGES
FOR ARMY IN THE NEXT 10-15 YEARS?
MAJGEN KING: We will still have a central role within the joint force. In the next 10 to 15 years, there’ll be competing priorities around the need for a human workforce, while also embracing and actively utilising technology to take humans out of repetitive, dangerous and dirty roles. We will continue to leverage robotics and autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, where we can rely on algorithms, to do those roles, and put the human in that key function where they are required to make that really important decision, that decision that literally involves people’s lives, either ours or our adversaries.
So that next 10 to 15 years is about that path for me. How do we make best use of that workforce? How do make best use and embrace that technology? And then how do we identify, and lay out a roadmap to get there? We’re not going to be able to jump straight to the end state – there’s going to be a number of stages all the way through. If I look to that fully autonomous solution, what I start to see are stages like leader-follower technology, partially-crewed, and a variety of other ever advancing stages that allow us to work our way up the chain to a fully autonomous system. The next 10 to 15 years, that first piece is how do we make best use of our soldiers to deliver best outcomes, embrace technology and deliver best solutions?
ARE WE COMING TO THE END OF CREWED
ARTILLERY AND ARMOURED VEHICLES?
MAJGEN KING: Look, not yet. Wherever we look to use lethal force, there will be need to be a human somewhere in that chain. I’ll give the example of the person in the front seat of an attack helicopter. You know, the technology is there right now where they can remotely apply lethal force through an uncrewed capability. But are they the right person to make that really difficult and important ethical decision around the application of lethal force, given their workload inside the cockpit? We will always look to use a human wherever possible to make sure that we ethically apply lethal force. I think you’ll see more autonomous systems and fewer crewed elements of an artillery system. Once upon a time there were layers and loaders, well they’re going; the drivers, they could also go. But as a nation that values human life, in the lethal role that we perform you’re not going to see us hand over decision-making when it comes to the application of lethal force. There’s a social expectation amongst the Australian population for this appropriate approach as well.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF ARMY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC?
MAJGEN KING: Army will always be part of any joint force employed in the region. It’s easy to dismiss history, and history has shown that Army has had a role in in conflicts in the region since the First World War. We don’t see that changing.
LEFT: Land Forces 2022 was the largest in the series so far, with 810 companies represented and around 20,000 attendees at the three-day event
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