Project leaders Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser outlined the plan in an October 21 open letter. Competitions, exercises and combat performance will determine which systems receive wider adoption and which are dropped.
“The goal is not a particular drone. It is a system built to adapt at scale,” they wrote.
Agincourt has two assignments: establish the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, and continue the work of the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems. The second task includes developing an acquisition model that connects suppliers directly with operational forces.
The project will work with the Joint Staff, military services and operational units to test that approach. Its leaders said spending should produce measurable reductions in the cost of engaging targets or the risk to forces.
“The power of the purse demands strict stewardship. To flip the cost exchange, every auditable dollar we spend should reduce cost-per-kill or risk-to-force,” the letter states.
West and Strasiser argue that low-cost drones have changed the speed and economics of warfare, disrupting an approach built around small numbers of sophisticated, expensive weapons. They want the United States to respond by developing and adapting systems faster at the operational level.
The roadmap would allow each theater to develop its own combination of capabilities, rather than use a uniform portfolio. It specifically notes that the systems suited to the Pacific will differ from those needed in Europe.
“We have set a hard test for ourselves. These new systems will not be declared ready on paper,” the leaders wrote.
Combatant commanders must be able to use the equipment in combat, while the new model must also strengthen the military services. One measure of progress will be how quickly an operational problem receives a fielded solution evaluated for wider use.
The letter calls for removing barriers to service members’ initiative by bringing operations and development together. AUTOWARCOM is intended to make that process a permanent part of how the military develops and employs new capabilities.
