Air Force says AI tools outperform human planners in ‘battle management’ experiment
In a complex multi-service, multi-domain scenario — not typically covered in Air Force training — the best of several AI tools generated tactical “courses of action” not only faster than military professionals but also with fewer errors.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on January 06, 2026 4:33 pm
WASHINGTON — It’s not Skynet, yet, but in an Air Force experiment artificial intelligence tools managed to out-perform human professionals in a key piece of planning military operations, service officials recently revealed.
In the service’s latest “DASH” experiment this past fall, the Air Force pitted AI tools from half a dozen companies against military personnel from the US, Canada and UK and asked each to solve hypothetical “battle management” problems, from standard Air Force tasks like planning an airstrike or rerouting aircraft whose home base had been damaged, to more obscure scenarios like gathering intelligence on an anomalous electromagnetic signal or protecting a disabled and drifting Navy vessel.
When the Air Force evaluated the resulting proposed Courses of Action (COAs), it found that at least one of the AI algorithms not only generated more COAs in less time than the humans, but it actually made fewer errors than the humans did as well.
“These machine-generated recommendations were up to 90 percent faster than traditional methods, with the best in machine-class solutions showing 97 percent viability and tactical validity,” said Col. John Ohlund, director of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team (ABMS CFT), according to an official article published by the Air Force on Monday about DASH-3 (Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming).
https://breakingdefense.com/2026/01/air-force-says-ai-tools-outperform-human-planners-in-battle-management-experiment/
