THE SUSTAINER | THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
#BritishArmyLogistics
Should Defence be investing in developing autonomous combat logistic vehicles? Much has been said and written about automation.We often see news stories about Amazon, Ocado and other logistic companies developing automated warehouses and the automotive industry developing driverless vehicles. Safety, cost efficiency and climate change are behind this, but how much is Defence getting involved in the revolution? This article will focus on the distribution aspect of logistics, particularly the last mile of resupply to frontline troops and analyse the pros and cons of automation, before outlining what projects Defence is currently undertaking. And I ask… should we be pushing to automate combat resupply or are there higher, more appropriate priorities? Why would we automate? The immediate response most people would give when asked: ‘Why would we automate the distribution of combat supplies on kinetic operations?’ It is because it could reduce the risk to soldiers' lives. Indeed, in the UK Doctrine, Robotics and Autonomous Systems in Military Support (RAS), the aim of using automation is to:“reduce the physical and cognitive burden on the serviceperson to increase endurance, persistence and reach to enable sustained operations in degraded and austere environments.” 1 If driverless vehicles deliver combat supplies to frontline troops, the soldiers that would have been driving the logistic convoys are not exposed to that high-risk environment and become available to conduct other duties. This is a valid argument, yet there are numerous other considerations to look at. Humans need rest to avoid making mistakes that can ultimately lead to injury or worse. This limits the speed at which they can distribute supplies. Automated vehicles do not have these constraints. They could go further, faster, expanding operational reach and improving speed and 32
Credit AB Volvo
By Major Rachel Gibbs
efficiency of resupply. Automated resupply could be far more agile and resilient than traditional methods, resupplying little and often by using single vehicle moves, rather than waiting for demand levels to make a convoy worthwhile. By lowering the risk, the threshold for benefit would be lower in the risk vs benefit trade off calculation. This could give greater flexibility to combat troops, allowing them to go deeper into enemy territory for longer with confidence that they will have logistic support. So there may be some benefits from automating the way we resupply the frontline. However, it also raises a plethora of issues.Without resupply, combat troops cannot function effectively for longer than a day or two, making resupply a high value target for the enemy. Resupply convoys are extremely vulnerable and therefore armed protection of the logistic convoy is paramount.The current standard operating procedure for logistic convoys operating in contested combat environments involves each vehicle having a minimum of one soldier driving and a second on top cover.With unmanned vehicles, armed protection disappears: currently automated weapon systems that remove the human decision-making process on
whether to fire are a no-go for the British Army due to the moral and legal questions they raise. Removing armed protection could make the logistic vehicles even more vulnerable to ground attack, irrespective of the fact they are driverless. There is another huge advantage that soldiers can provide when engaged in resupply: situational awareness. During convoys, soldiers can collate huge amounts of information to report to their HQs: enemy numbers and locations, conditions of routes, the morale of friendly forces. This information can be invaluable to the battle picture. Automated vehicles do not have this capability, currently. In the future, technological advancements may produce sensors that can collect battlefield intelligence and distribute it to soldiers on the ground2. But as it stands, the human element provides a significant advantage that automated vehicles do not. Why don’t we wait for technology to improve? Numerous civilian companies are investing billions into researching and developing autonomous vehicles. Collectively this reaches far beyond Defence’s entire budget.With such disparity in what Defence can invest
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