The application of autonomous systems to military operations has received considerable attention. However, the total costs (in terms of design, engineering, operations, maintenance and training) of using autonomy versus traditional systems to provide military capabilities are not well understood and misconceptions as to whether autonomous systems can be employed only to save cost have occurred.
The multi-national STO Specialist Team on ‘Understanding the cost related implications of autonomy- a system of systems perspective’ (reference SAS-146) has been working in the past 10 months on a short paper describing the system of systems perspective of the cost related impact of the introduction of autonomy as well as a system of systems analysis approach to create awareness of the possible cost related effects of the introduction of autonomy for different contexts.
A team of representatives from Defence Science and Technology Laboratory United Kingdom, International Centre for Defence and Security Estonia and Swedish Defence Research Agency gathered this week at the STO/CSO facility in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, to review the current draft of the report, identify gaps in the report, and determine the way ahead to fill those gaps.
The final report, expected to be finalized early 2020, aims at facilitating awareness of the potential cost effects of the introduction of autonomy in military operations, exploring the relationship between costs and autonomy, and identifying the second and third order costs that will result from the introduction of autonomy.
The application of autonomous systems to military operations has received considerable attention. However, the total costs (in terms of design, engineering, operations, maintenance and training) of using autonomy versus traditional systems to provide military capabilities are not well understood and misconceptions as to whether autonomous systems can be employed only to save cost have occurred.
