26
March 2024
Past Event
Integrating Uncrewed Systems to Hedge against Aggression

Event will also air live on this page.

 

Inquiries: mdewitt@hudson.org

Integrating Uncrewed Systems to Hedge against Aggression

Past Event
Hudson Institute
March 26, 2024
A US Marine Corps MQ-9A taxis the flight line on Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on June 20, 2023. (US Marine Corps photo)
Caption
A US Marine Corps MQ-9A taxis the flight line on Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on June 20, 2023. (US Marine Corps photo)
26
March 2024
Past Event

Event will also air live on this page.

 

Inquiries: mdewitt@hudson.org

Speakers:
CEO, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
David Alexander

President, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems

bryan_clark
Bryan Clark

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology

dan_patt
Dan Patt

Senior Fellow, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology

Listen to Event Audio

The recently released United States defense budget suggests that the US military is reaching its capability and capacity limits. The US force—which consists almost entirely of crewed multimission ships, aircraft, and vehicles—is too expensive to grow within realistic fiscal constraints but too small to meet America’s growing national security needs. To fund next-generation crewed platforms and sustain those already in the force, the Pentagon now must retire more ships and aircraft each year than it buys.

The Department of Defense could escape this force structure death spiral by incorporating uncrewed systems as an integral part of the US military, rather than as extensions of the crewed force that handle only “dirty, dull, and dangerous” missions. As demonstrated by ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Red Sea, uncrewed systems could contribute to each link in US kill chains, improving the adaptability and resilience of US forces and achieving scale at much lower costs compared to crewed systems.

Join Hudson Institute Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt for a discussion with David Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, about the growing role of uncrewed systems in warfare, how the US could exploit uncrewed technology in “hedge forces” like those the Pentagon is pursuing through its Replicator initiative, and how the US military can improve its ability to integrate uncrewed technology into the force.

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