WASHINGTON, D.C. — Army special operators are working to integrate technology that reflects the changing nature of war, creating a detachment dedicated to robotics and planning to soon incorporate technicians into their formations.
In March 2024, 1st Special Forces Command created the Special Operations Robotics Detachment, resulting from “the experience of military operations in Ukraine” and the attention paid to “new products of an asymmetric nature,” an Army statement of work for the detachment read.
The detachment is made up of aviation soldiers that provide subject matter expertise in the employment of robotics and programmatic oversight of Group 1-3 uncrewed aerial systems. They also lead innovation and employment of commercial off-the-shelf, government off-the-shelf or organically built robotics systems, the statement said.
The creation of the detachment reflects a change within Army Special Operations Command “over the past couple years” and “the direction that we’re going,” said Brig. Gen. Joseph Wortham, commander of 1st Special Forces Command. “And that really is an evolution of a capability where we see our ability to be able to help in that deep space.”
The detachment “does a couple of things for us,” he said during a panel discussion at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting in October.
First, “it creates a center of knowledge and expertise, a deep understanding of all things that look like an unmanned system, whether it’s air, ground or anywhere in the sea,” Wortham said.
Second, “because of that deep expertise … the master [can] then pass along that knowledge and create capabilities at echelon, all the way across our O6 units.”
In addition to the robotics detachment, Army Special Operations Command will soon be adding robotics technicians to its formations, Wortham said.
The new 390A robotics technician military occupational specialty is part of the Army’s “continuous transformation,” an Army duty description said.
According to the online posting, the robotics technician will “enable and provide robotic and autonomous system solutions to tactical problems across all warfighting functions and domains during competition, crisis and combat operations.”
The technicians will be assigned to tactical formations at brigade/group-level and above and serve as the subject matter experts for planning robotics and autonomous systems operations and integrating them into broader plans.
They will be trained on unmanned systems, counter-unmanned systems and the principles and fundamentals of network and software engineering, electronic warfare, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Maj. Gen. Jason Slider, commanding general of the Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, said as the operational force transforms, “so must our center of excellence and our training base.”
“We’re rethinking the way that we train robotics,” Slider said during the panel. “I don’t think there will ever be a time in the future where a soldier doesn’t take a robotic piece of kit and toss it on the ground, in the water or in the air to perform some tactical task.”
Slider said based on what he has learned over the past two years, the center’s standalone robotics and unmanned systems integration course will be discontinued. “We’re going to drive that curriculum into all of our … qualification courses so every soldier is exposed to robotics at the same time that they’re learning their specific knowledge skills and abilities to earn their” military occupational specialty.
Commanders at brigade and below “need expertise on their staff to integrate new technologies as they become available,” Slider said, “but also to plan robotics and autonomous systems operations [and] integrate them into broader plans.”
In January, the center will begin a pilot Army robotics and technology integrator course for the new 390A warrant officers, Slider said.
“We’re doing that so that we can build the expertise within our warrant officer corps that can plan robotics operations, integrate those operations into broader plans, solve tactical problems across all warfighting functions and domains and deliver effects at echelon,” Slider said.
Integrating technology is “really, really key and fundamental to all of our changes,” Wortham said. “We all know that the character of war is currently changing, and the best way for us to do that is to saturate unmanned systems of all types into our formation at echelon and at scale.”