Autonomy and Combined Arms Maneuver: The Elements Remain, but How We Deliver Them Is Changing Forever

Modern War Institute | James Mingus

Agentic artificial intelligence is restructuring combined arms maneuver by moving beyond individual decision-support tools toward dynamic system orchestration across joint force formations. Retired General James Mingus identifies this shift as a transformation from human-controlled platforms to human-directed command operating alongside machine execution. This command architecture enables geographically dispersed forces to achieve mass without physical concentration, delivering fires, electronic warfare, and intelligence at machine speed.

By replacing individual platform dominance with networked force integration, autonomous systems continuously adapt and reorganize across air, land, and sea domains. The evolution preserves core combined arms principles while transferring tactical execution to heterogeneous robotic swarms operating under explicit intent boundaries. Human authority retains responsibility for lethal decisions, yet force effectiveness will increasingly depend on the speed and coherence of the broader fighting ecosystem. Consequently, military modernization must pivot from acquiring exquisite standalone platforms toward building command architectures that seamlessly link sensors, platforms, and human commanders.

Comment

Offloading execution control to agentic software exposes a fundamental tension within the US Army's Mission Command doctrine as articulated in ADP 6-0. While machine-speed synchronization accelerates engagement cycles, delegating tactical adjustments to autonomous network nodes compresses the cognitive time available for corps and division staffs to evaluate battlefield risk. At exercises like Project Convergence Capstone 4, automated target matching reduced sensor-to-shooter timelines, yet revealed how algorithmic decision logic can obscure the rationale behind automated tactical recommendations.

This compression forces higher headquarters to shift from active operational oversight to pre-formatted parameter setting prior to phase transitions. When autonomous systems dynamically reallocate electronic attack or strike assets, lower-echelon commanders lose the ability to manually redirect organic assets without triggering wider algorithmic disruptions across the Joint All-Domain Command and Control network.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If automated target matching and agentic orchestration become the primary drivers of engagement speed, how can corps headquarters preserve the qualitative risk evaluation required under ADP 6-0 during high-intensity conflict?

The available evidence points toward a structural pivot where corps commanders must pre-authorize operational bounds rather than evaluate individual engagements in real time. My assessment is that risk management under ADP 6-0 will increasingly rely on post-hoc algorithmic auditing and pre-battle parameter boundaries, fundamentally redefining tactical command authority during multi-domain operations.

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