On June 5, 2026, a new National Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-11, directed the secretary of defense to update Department of Defense Directive 3000.09 within 90 days, explicitly to keep pace with rapidly evolving AI capabilities. The article argues this update must expand the definition of a lethal autonomous weapon system beyond physical effectors like drones to include the AI software orchestrating the kill chain, which selects and engages targets without human intervention.
This definitional shift is critical because modern warfare, exemplified by Ukraine and Russia, increasingly relies on software like Ukraine's Delta and Russia's Svod to manage mass unmanned systems. In Ukraine, drones now conduct roughly 80 percent of strike missions. The U.S. military's current top-down, fragmented approach to command and control, seen in initiatives like CJADC2 and service-specific systems such as Project Overmatch, risks falling behind Ukraine's bottom-up integration.
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