‘Simple plans, violently executed’: One Army unit’s old-school counter to high-tech chaos

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

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WASHINGTON — As high tech proliferates on battlefields from Iran to Ukraine, and the Pentagon wrangles with frontier AI firms, one unique Army unit has embraced the virtues of simplicity.

Drones, electronic warfare, and even artificial intelligence are all valuable tools, officers from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment told Breaking Defense. But the organizations, plans, and processes that wield those tools need to be as simple and robust as possible, they warned, or else it’ll all fall apart under the stress of combat.

“Tech, as it advances, has certainly been a boon,” said Capt. Jake Thomas, an infantryman by training, who’s now in charge of the regiment’s electronic and information warfare assets. But the danger, he told Breaking Defense, is overloading soldiers with more bells, whistles, and information than ordinary human minds can manage.