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- Eric Schmidt says drones are the future of warfare, calling tanks “useless.”
- “A $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank,” he said.
- Schmidt has a startup building AI-powered drones to help Ukraine.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said future wars would be fought by AI-powered drones and urged the US military to do away with what he called “useless” tanks.
Speaking Wednesday at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, Schmidt said the low cost of automated drones would soon make traditional forms of combat obsolete.
“The world has an awful lot of tanks. Those tanks are largely useless now. A $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank,” he said.
“I read somewhere that the US had thousands and thousands of tanks stored somewhere,” he added. “Give them away. Buy a drone instead. In fact, buy 10, buy 20, buy 50, buy 100.”
For almost a decade, Schmidt has advised the US government and military on technology. He became the chair of the Defense Innovation Board, which advises the Department of Defense, in 2016 and has chaired the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
He’s also working on a startup that builds AI attack drones to help Ukraine. Speaking at Stanford University in April, he said the goal of the startup, White Stork, was to use AI “in complicated, powerful ways.”
Schmidt is working on the project with former Udacity and Kittyhawk CEO Sebastian Thrun. Forbes previously reported Schmidt was interested in exploding drones, or unmanned systems packed with explosives that detonate upon hitting their targets. They are also known as loitering munitions because they can linger above an area before descending on their targets.
“The cost of autonomy has fallen so quickly that the drone war, which is the future of conflict, will get rid of, eventually, tanks, artillery, and mortars,” Schmidt said in Saudi Arabia this week.
Asked about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Schmidt said he had been surprised by innovations in drone technology. “If you look at the drone tactics, the drone tactics are changing every day,” he said.
Ukraine has also developed its own drone program, producing sophisticated systems for land, air, and sea missions.
Drone warfare has been a dominating element of the Ukraine conflict, with cheap first-person-view drones threatening everything that moves, from vehicles to aircraft to soldiers.
Even top tanks, such as the Russian T-90 and American armor, have succumbed to this threat. Tank crews have been forced to adapt, employing extensive explosive reactive armor on tanks and other armored vehicles and equipping them with cage armor of varying sophistication to shield them from emerging battlefield threats.
While drones have made the battle space more transparent and more dangerous, conventional warfighting elements remain. Troops are being more cautious, but tanks are still active, armored fighting vehicles have repeatedly proved their worth, and artillery continues to be king. However, as unmanned technology matures, especially with the introduction of AI, that could change.
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