050 S01 Ep 16 - Using Technology as a Combat Multiplier on the Modern Battlefield w/DR Robert Semmens of the Army Research Laboratory

The Crucible - The JRTC Experience Podcast

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the fiftieth episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by the Commander of Ops Group (COG), COL Matthew Hardman. Today’s guest is a Senior Research Fellow for the Army Research Laboratory at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Dr. Robert Semmens. He has a PhD from Stanford University in how people learn with technology.

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) is the U.S. Army's foundational research laboratory. The United States Military Academy (USMA) is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort during the Revolutionary War, as it sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. It is the oldest of the five American service academies and educates cadets for commissioning into the United States Army.

In this episode we discuss warfighting on the modern battlefield, the incorporation of technology as a combat multiplier, and preparing the force for AI centric warfare of the future. The science and technology team from ARL had four major take-aways for Army robotics of the future based on their observation of the rotation:

• Time-scale matters, especially when comparing combat units to combat support units.
• How are we going to man these units that oversee autonomous unmanned systems? How much training and education do these individuals need?
• What does the Army needs manufactured vs. what does the Army need to train for proficiency as it applies to robotics?
• How do we sustain this new force? What does the supply chain look like, especially as it pertains to contested logistics in LSCO?

The science and technology team from ARL usually doesn’t have very much interaction with the end-user, the warfighter, but were afforded the opportunity to spend nearly a week with the rotational training unit as they worked through the crucible that is the JRTC experience. This provided the team with invaluable insights into the actual needs of the warfighter as they work towards a variety of autonomous unmanned systems that can operate in groups effectively across a wide variety of support functions.

Part of S01 “The Leader’s Laboratory” series.

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“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.