- Eric Schmidt says drones are the future of warfare, calling tanks “useless.”
- “A $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank,” he said.
- Schmidt owns a startup that builds AI-powered drones to help Ukraine.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said future wars would be fought by AI-powered drones and urged the US military to get rid of what he called “useless” tanks.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Schmidt said the low cost of automated drones would soon make traditional forms of combat obsolete.
“The world has an awful lot of tanks. These tanks are now largely useless. A $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank,” he said.
“I read somewhere that the United States has thousands and thousands of tanks somewhere,” he added. “Donate them. Buy a drone instead. Actually, buy 10, buy 20, buy 50, buy 100.”
For nearly a decade, Schmidt has advised the U.S. government and military on technology. He became chairman of the Defense Innovation Board, which advises the Department of Defense, in 2016 and chaired the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
He is also working on a startup that builds AI attack drones to help Ukraine. Speaking at Stanford University in April, he said the goal of the startup, White Stork, was to use AI “in complex and powerful ways.”
Schmidt is working on the project with former Udacity and Kittyhawk CEO Sebastian Thrun. Forbes previously reported that Schmidt was interested in bomb drones, or unmanned systems filled with explosives that detonate when they hit their targets. They are also called stray munitions because they can linger over an area before descending on their targets.
“The cost of autonomy has fallen so quickly that drone warfare, which is the future of conflict, will eventually eliminate tanks, artillery and mortars,” Schmidt said in Saudi Arabia this week.
Asked about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Schmidt said he was surprised by innovations in drone technology. “If you look at drone tactics, they change every day,” he said.
Ukraine has also developed its own drone program, producing sophisticated systems for land, air and maritime missions.
Drone warfare is a dominant element of the Ukrainian conflict, with cheap, first-person drones threatening everything that moves, from vehicles to planes to soldiers.
Even the best tanks, like the Russian T-90 and American armor, have succumbed to this threat. Tank crews were forced to adapt, using extensive explosive reactive armor on tanks and other armored vehicles and equipping them with caged armor of varying sophistication to protect them from emerging threats on the battlefield.
Although drones have made the battlespace more transparent and dangerous, the elements of conventional warfare remain. Troops are more cautious, but tanks are still active, armored fighting vehicles have repeatedly proven their worth, and artillery continues to be king. However, as unmanned technology evolves, particularly with the introduction of AI, this could change.
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