The Robotification of Warfare: Strategic Imperatives for the Robotic Age
by LTC Richard Brennan III, USA
Land Warfare Paper 171 / November 2025
In Brief
The character of warfare is evolving in real time, with robotic systems increasingly assuming the risks that were once exclusive to humans on the battlefield.
The shift from warfare reliant on animals for locomotion to modern maneuver warfare (mechanization) offers a framework for understanding the transition to a battlefield dominated by robotics.
Failure to rapidly adapt to this new reality risks investing in a robotic Maginot Line, misusing transformational technologies to sustain outdated methods of warfare—such as using trucks to keep horse cavalry fed—rather than understanding how these technologies are redefining the battlefield.
It is essential to move beyond a paradigm that seeks to leverage robotics to better fight 20th-century maneuver warfare and to ask, “What is warfare in the robotic age?”
https://www.ausa.org/publications/land-warfare-paper/the-robotification-of-warfare
