Today, the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) launched a joint project, “Human-Machine Collaboration and Teaming in Military Operations.”
The project brings together defense experts, technologists, and academics from across the public and private sectors in the United Kingdom and the United States to inform future military approaches in both countries and seeks to identify new opportunities to leverage emerging technologies for military advantage against the backdrop of Russian aggression and intensifying geopolitical rivalry with China.
SCSP’s President and CEO Ylli Bajraktari and RUSI’s Director General Karin Von Hippel opened today’s workshop, the first of three project workshops. It focused on identifying existing and forecasted human-machine collaboration and teaming capabilities that could realistically be fielded by 2030.
“This is a decisive decade. We are in the middle of an intensifying geopolitical competition with China that will determine not just the future of our two countries, but also the fate of our democracy. We at SCSP believe that technology is the epicenter of this competition, and the one that we must win. Technology is a critical component of our economic and social well-being, but we can also not lose sight of a reality that has served us well – that our mastering of technology is critical to empowering our warfighters and deterring our adversaries. It is with that fact in mind that we embarked on this effort. And I can’t think of a better partner than RUSI and a better ally than the United Kingdom to be working with on this project,” said SCSP President and CEO Ylli Bajraktari.
“It is a great pleasure to work with our colleagues at the Special Competitive Studies Project again, and bring the Royal United Services Institute’s convening power to bear on such an important issue. What I am particularly excited about is the breadth of talent our two organisations have brought together. This allows us the opportunity to move the discussion beyond a focus on the technology, and consider the human elements and how the two converge to leverage the advantages each brings to a collaborative ‘human-machine’ team. This event highlights, yet again, the huge importance of the defence and security relationship between the UK and US, and the value of the strong partnership between our two institutions,” said RUSI’s Director General Karin Von Hippel.
The second roundtable will focus on identifying specific human-machine teaming capabilities the U.S. and UK militaries should consider pursuing to solve projected operational challenges. The third roundtable will focus on how the U.S. Department of Defense and U.K. Ministry of Defence can implement these new capabilities. The project will culminate with a report summarizing the key findings for policymakers in both countries.
For more information about the project, please contact SCSP Senior Director for Strategy and Communications Tara Rigler at tmr@scsp.ai and RUSI Media Relations Manager Jack Haines at jackh@rusi.org.