A.I. Enabled Warfare Is About To Change Everything

On January 9th, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote a memo which included the following:

“President Trump makes clear in Executive Order 14179, "It is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance America's global Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security." In the national security domain, AI-enabled warfare and AI-enabled capability development will re-define the character of military affairs over the next decade. This transformation is a race - fueled by the accelerating pace of commercial AI innovation coming out of America's private sector. The United States Military must build on its lead over our adversaries in integrating this technology, established during President Trump's first term, to make our Warfighters more lethal and efficient. To this end, aligned with America's AI Action Plan, I direct the Department of War to accelerate America's Military AI Dominance by becoming an "AI-first" warfighting force across all components, from front to back.”

According to Hegseth, the United States is engaged in a race to develop A.I.-enabled warfare and A.I.-enabled capability development, and "We will become an 'A.I.-first' warfighting force across all domains." 

To do this, the Pentagon is taking a wartime approach to delivering these capabilities, with an emphasis on three areas – warfighting, intelligence, and enterprise operations. 

The means to implement this acceleration is the launch of seven Pace-Setting Projects (PSPs), each with a single accountable leader and aggressive timelines. 

According to the Department of War, these seven PSPs will establish a new A.I. execution standard for the entire Department. They are as follows:

1) Swarm Forge: Competitive mechanism to iteratively discover, test, and scale novel ways of fighting with and against A.I.-enabled capabilities – combining America's elite warfighting units with elite technology innovators.

2) Agent Network: Unleashing A.I. agent development and experimentation for A.I.-enabled battle management and decision support, from campaign planning to kill chain execution.

3) Ender's Foundry: Accelerating A.I.-enabled simulation capabilities – and sim-dev and sim-ops feedback loops – to ensure we stay ahead of A.I.-enabled adversaries.

4) Open Arsenal: Accelerating the TechINT-to-capability development pipeline, turning intel into weapons in hours, not years.

5) Project Grant: Enabling transformation of deterrence from static postures and speculation to dynamic pressure with interpretable results.

6) GenAI.mil: Providing Department-wide access to frontier generative A.I. models, like Google's Gemini and xAI's Grok, for all Department of War personnel at Impact Level (IL-5) and above classification levels. 

7) Enterprise Agents: Building the playbook for rapid and secure A.I. agent development and deployment to transform enterprise workflows.

In the end, these initiatives will integrate A.I. into every aspect of the Department of War, from weapons on the battlefield to the Department's back-office systems.

In the process, will these PSPs transform the world?

I don’t know.

However, I do know this…

Their pursuit is a sign of the times in which we live – a transformative era of rapidly developing military technologies.

These technologies will radically alter the global power structure, eventually resulting in one nation (or a coalition of nations) establishing a global empire.

The Russia-Ukraine war demonstrates how much the modern battlefield has changed. Conventional military hardware, and some cases even soldiers themselves, have been rendered obsolete in the face of drone warfare.

Meanwhile, the types of drones deployed and the methods of their deployment rapidly evolve on a weekly, if not daily, basis as lessons learned on the battlefield are integrated into the next generation of drones.

This is what the Open Arsenal PSP hopes to address.

To understand just how rapidly the world is changing, look at the stated purpose of Open Arsenal.

It’s to accelerate the technology intelligence-to-capability development pipeline, “turning intel into weapons in hours, not years.”

Let that sink in.

“Turning intel into weapons in hours, not years.”

This is a radical transformation of the old order.

Not only does this translate into fielding superior weapons on the battlefield, but it means the adoption of a whole new method of defense procurement.

Most conventional weapons systems are obsolete in the face of A.I.-enabled drone warfare, but so too are the days of conventional weapon systems development, where it takes 10 to 15 years from initial design to appearance on the battlefield.

The Pentagon is aiming to reduce that timeline to hours.

Even the drone warfare of the last few years is becoming obsolete in the face of A.I.-enabled drone swarms.

In the Forbes article, "Swarm Forge: Pentagon’s Mass-Drone Test Signals Near-Term Deployment," we read:

“The Nemyx distributed swarming engine runs as an app on each of the drones,” says Meier. “They communicate with each other and organise themselves to attack targets in priority order.”

The drones exchange information including relative location and ‘heartbeat’ status, and which target they are homing in on. The swarm is synchronised so that if one drone is lost, another automatically takes over its target.

Meier notes that the swarm’s robust mesh network is highly resistant to jamming, greatly aided by simple physics. It requires relatively little power to jam communications between a nearby drone and an operator many miles away, it is much harder to jam communications between drones which are much closer to each other than to the jammer.

“Even if all communication is lost, each drone will use its best efforts to hit its target,” says Meier.

Decentralized, A.I.-controlled drone swarms are already here, and they’re evolving quickly.

Expect to see stronger, faster, larger, and ever more capable drone swarms in the months and years ahead.

Already, drone swarms are growing exponentially. As Forbes states:

“The swarms are getting larger. Auterion are currently operating swarms of up to 22 units, but that number doubles every few months."

The article doesn't specify an exact number of months, but let's assume the size of drone swarms doubles every four months. Where does that put us?

1 year from now = 176 drones in a swarm

2 years from now = 1,408 drones in a swarm

3 years from now = 11,264 drones in a swarm

4 years from now = 90,112 drones in a swarm

5 years from now = 720,896 drones in a swarm

That's the power of exponential change, and it's the era in which we now live.

The Pentagon’s conventional weapons procurement programs focused on hardware. With expendable munitions and the rapid innovation we now see in the era of drone warfare, that focus has changed.

Software is what matters.

When drones are used as bombs and missiles, the goal is to manufacture them as inexpensively as possible.

After all, if the end goal is to blow something up, you don’t want to spend a lot on it.

Moreover, the great value in the era of drone warfare resides in the A.I.-control of those drones:

"Auterion is essentially a software company. The point of the demonstration is to show what the control system can do. The drone itself hardly matters."

The software is what’s essential in fielding these capabilities. The hardware itself (the actual drones in this case) are largely irrelevant.

The power comes from fielding drones capable of adapting in real-time on the battlefield, while operating as a decentralized swarm.

That’s why the Pentagon is pouring investment into the seven aforementioned PSPs – Swarm Forge, Agent Network, Ender's Foundry, Open Arsenal, Project Grant, GenAI.mil, and Enterprise Agents.

All of these projects focus on the development of the software, code, and models essential to fielding the winning drone swarms of the future.

This is what will enable the deployment of agile weapons systems capable of learning and adapting in real-time on the battlefield.

But software alone won’t transform the battlefield. While less emphasis is being placed on the hardware itself (the drones), more emphasis is being placed on how to create that hardware scale.

In other words, the ability to mass produce drones at the lowest possible cost and on the most compressed timeline possible is the capability every major power in the world is currently seeking.

The ability to manufacture drones at scale enables the deployment of mass attack waves capable of overwhelming enemy positions.

Furthermore, developing a manufacturing process with the agility to quickly shift to new designs without time-consuming assembly line modifications, with the ability to complete limited production runs, and eventually, the capability to manufacture on the battlefield will provide a tremendous advantage to whoever possesses it.

In "Trump’s Executive Orders Point to Global Empire," I wrote:

In August 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense announced plans for something called The Replicator Initiative. 

The stated goal? 

At a National Defense Industrial Association conference, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said Washington was initiating a program to launch thousands of land-, air-, and sea-based drones simultaneously.

The message was clear. The U.S. wants a drone production system they can scale.

And that’s the key element.

The ability to manufacture mass quantities of drones at large scale (first thousands, then millions, then billions) and have them operate in synchronized, decentralized swarms is what will give a nation (or group of nations) the ability to circumvent MAD and establish a global empire. 

This is precisely what the United States is seeking. 

We’re only in the early moments of a revolution in drone warfare. What’s coming will seem like science-fiction to most people.

Nevertheless, it’s coming. And it has significant implications for the fulfillment of end times bible prophecy.

A.I.-controlled drone swarms will be able to completely overwhelm conventional military weapons and personnel. But mutual assured destruction (MAD) remains in place as long as the major nuclear powers can maintain secrecy regarding the location of their nuclear-armed submarines.

Once enough drones can be cost effectively manufactured to track everything in the world’s oceans and waterways, MAD will come to an end. However, it’s difficult to imagine that moment can be reached prior to the development of molecular manufacturing.

This is the breakthrough technology every major power is actively pursuing.

In "The World is About to Change Forever," I noted:

Within a few short years, the sophistication of A.I.-controlled drone swarms will far exceed anything we see today. Most conventional weapons will be powerless against them. But Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) will not be overturned until drone swarms can be quickly deployed at scale and at relatively low cost.

Once humanity achieves the breakthrough enabling this, it will radically alter the current world order. Such a breakthrough will result in several unavoidable consequences. One of those is the ability to conquer the globe.

In a post-MAD world, the nation with a first-mover technological advantage will face two options:

1) An unstable arms race ending in global annihilation, or

2) Global empire

Simple logic says they'll choose global empire.

That should catch your attention, because the Bible tells us a global empire will devour the entire world during the Tribulation:

"Then he said to me, ‘This fourth beast is the fourth world power that will rule the earth. It will be different from all the others. It will devour the whole world, trampling and crushing everything in its path.’” Daniel 7:23 (NLT)

We also know the Antichrist will rule over the entire earth:

"And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation." Revelation 13:7 (NLT)

And no one will be able to make war against him:

“They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. ‘Who is as great as the beast?’ they exclaimed. ‘Who is able to fight against him?’” Revelation 13:4 (NLT)

We’re on the cusp of developing weapons that make conquering the world and establishing a global empire not only possible, but necessary. Yet, most people remain unaware of this possibility.

Given how close we are to seeing a global empire and other Tribulation events, we’re very close to the world witnessing the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the seven-year Tribulation. And that means the rapture of the church (which I believe occurs before the Tribulation) is even closer.

When the disciples asked Jesus to describe the signs of His coming and the end of the age, He pointed to many signs. But one of the most overlooked is the idea that when He returns, the world will be "like it was in the days of Noah." Jesus said:

"In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes." Matthew 24:38-39 (NLT)

Look around. Despite all the chaos and turmoil in the world, people are living their lives as if everything is normal. Yet, the signs Jesus and the prophets said to look for are all around us. 

Now we’re seeing the development of advanced technologies which will inevitably lead to a global empire. Yet, most people have no idea any of this is about to happen.

As in the days of Noah, they don’t realize what’s coming. Noah’s generation didn’t think the flood would come, but it came. 

Our generation doesn’t think Jesus will come, but He will. 

And all the signs say He’s coming in our generation.

Britt Gillette is the author of several books on bible prophecy and the end times. You can find more of his work at brittgillette.substack.com