The Pentagon is racing to deploy artificial intelligence across military operations before adversaries gain an irreversible edge, driven by lessons from Ukraine, where cheap drones powered by AI are destroying million-dollar tanks as well as China's push to dominate military AI. The Department of War launched a $100 million AI program in December 2024 to accelerate this shift from improved battlefield decisions to autonomous weapons.
Reflecting this shift in military planning is Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor, acting commander of the Eighth Army in South Korea, recently admitted he and his AI chatbot have become “really close lately.”
How Ukraine's AI Drones Are Reshaping Modern Warfare
Taylor's embrace of AI reflects lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, where AI-powered drones are reshaping modern combat
Ukrainian and Russian forces are deploying first-person-view drones, some of which are equipped with AI-assisted targeting that uses computer vision to lock onto and track targets, allowing strikes to succeed even when electronic warfare systems disrupt operator control. Ukraine manufactured more than 1.5 million FPV drones in 2024, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Russian sources, including President Vladimir Putin, said Russia also produced more than 1.5 million drones of various types in 2024.
These cheap weapons are changing warfare. FPV drones costing as little as $400 to assemble now account for the majority of destroyed Russian equipment, according to research from the Royal United Services Institute in London. A single $500 drone can destroy a tank worth millions, and Ukrainian forces are increasingly equipping these drones with AI-assisted targeting modules that cost as little as $100 to $200 per unit.
This rapid deployment of AI-assisted weapons demonstrates how quickly the technology can shift battlefield dynamics — a fact that is driving the Pentagon’s urgency to develop its own AI systems.
Pentagon Invests $100 Million in Military AI Technology
In December 2024, the Pentagon launched the Artificial Intelligence Rapid Capabilities Cell with $100 million in funding to accelerate deployment of frontier AI models, according to Radha Plumb, the Pentagon's chief digital and AI officer. The new office is running four pilot programs in 90-day experiments to test the potential of AI programs in military operations.
Two of the pilots focus on warfighting applications, testing how AI can accelerate battlefield decision-making and improve targeting accuracy for autonomous weapons systems. The other two focus on enterprise management, exploring how AI can streamline logistics, financial systems and human resources processes that currently consume thousands of man-hours.
The experiments are through the Pentagon's Global Information Dominance Experiments, which tests how AI can fuse data from satellites, sensors and intelligence platforms to give commanders a real-time picture of threats across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains.
The Pentagon allocated $100 million total into the initiative, with $35 million for the four initial pilots, $20 million for computing infrastructure, $40 million for small business contracts and the remainder for program management.
Early results from the pilots have been promising. In January 2025, one of the first completed tests involved using AI chatbots to help military doctors write clinical notes and provide medical advice. The pilot successfully identified the technology's capabilities while also uncovering more than 800 potential vulnerabilities that military programmers can now address before wider deployment.
More significantly, the Pentagon has begun testing AI in simulated Pacific combat scenarios, where the technology is demonstrating its ability to dramatically reduce the time commanders need to process battlefield information and issue orders.
China's Military AI Investments Force U.S. to Accelerate Technology Adoption
The main driving force behind the U.S. military's recent AI focus is China's massive investments in the technology in recent years.
Beijing is prioritizing AI-enabled capabilities because it believes AI is leading to the next revolution in military capabilities, according to the War Department's 2024 China military report. By 2030, the People's Liberation Army expects to field a range of algorithmic warfare and network-centric warfare capabilities operating at different levels of human-machine integration.
This means that China is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles, predictive maintenance and automated target recognition. The PLA is testing prototype autonomous combat drones, experimenting with AI-supported radar to track U.S. carrier groups, and exploring AI for electronic warfare.
U.S. private AI investment reached roughly $109.1 billion in 2024, nearly 12 times China's $9.3 billion, according to Stanford University's Human Centered Artificial Intelligence program. But China's state-run defense sector can integrate AI advances rapidly without bureaucratic delays that could slow American programs.
Meanwhile, Russia is deepening its cooperation with Beijing. Russian and Chinese defense officials met in Beijing in early 2024 to discuss developing joint autonomous weapons, according to Russia's Foreign Ministry.
Air Force Secretary Warns Future Combat Will Require Machine-Speed Decisions
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warned that future combat will demand split-second choices beyond human capability.
“We're going to be in a world where decisions will not be made at human speed; they're going to be made at machine speed,” Kendall said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event in January.
In May 2024, Kendall flew in an AI-controlled F-16 fighter jet at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The experimental aircraft, called “Vista,” flew lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 550 miles per hour in simulated combat. After the hourlong flight, Kendall said he had seen enough to trust AI with the ability to decide whether to launch weapons in war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has raised concerns about autonomous weapons making lethal decisions without human oversight. Despite these warnings, the Air Force is planning an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, with the first ones scheduled to be deployed by 2028.
AI Tools Help Military Leaders Process Intelligence and Forecast Supply Needs
Taylor's Eighth Army is already using AI on a regular basis for predictive analysis on sustainment issues and to help forecast intelligence trends, according to DefenseScoop.
“Just being able to write our weekly reports and things, in the intelligence world, to actually then help us predict things—I think that is the biggest thing that really I'm excited about—it's that modernization piece,” Taylor said.
The Army as a whole also recently began training mid-career soldiers on AI fundamentals through courses at the Army Research Laboratory in Maryland. The “Artificial Intelligence for Soldiers” program teaches officers, warrant officers, and non-commissioned officers how to leverage AI tools for their specific roles, featuring hands-on demonstrations of robotics and AI systems.
Meanwhile, service members across multiple installations and branches are already using AI-powered tools in daily operations—from processing intelligence data, improving logistics, and even predictive maintenance systems that forecast when equipment will need repairs before it breaks down.
At Fort Huachuca, Arizona, soldiers are using AI tools to process hours of drone footage in only minutes. Meanwhile, Army Special Operations Forces have adopted AI to reduce the cognitive burden on soldiers—using the technology to draft reports, process mission data, and analyze intelligence.
The global AI in military market was valued at approximately $9.3 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach between $19.3 and nearly $30 billion by 2030. That explosive growth reflects how seriously militaries worldwide are taking the technology.
For the U.S., the question is whether it can move fast enough. China and Russia are already integrating AI into weapons systems at an alarming rate, learning from Ukraine's battlefield tests. With China and Russia pushing ahead, the Pentagon's $100 million bet on AI may determine whether America maintains its military edge—or loses it.
