US Military Reimagines Warfare with Autonomous Robotics

In September, NATO completed a large maritime exercise focused on coordinated, autonomous operations — a milestone highlighted in the debut episode of Defense One Futures, which examines how robotic autonomy and artificial intelligence are reshaping how militaries buy, build, and train.

Fort Bragg and Clark Range: U.S. Army folds robotics into training

The episode documents that at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg and Alabama’s Clark Range the U.S. Army is incorporating advanced battlefield robotics into training. Those two training grounds serve as concrete examples of the tactical and institutional adjustments the episode places at the center of a broader discussion: how to prepare soldiers to operate alongside and against increasingly autonomous systems.

NATO’s maritime experiment: coordinated autonomous operations

Across the Atlantic, the podcast highlights NATO activity as a companion development. NATO in September completed a large maritime exercise focused on coordinated, autonomous operations — an event the episode uses to show that experimentation with autonomy is not limited to land ranges but reaches into allied maritime doctrine, tactics, and technical interoperability.

Featured voices: special forces, allied ministers, researchers, and analysts

The episode draws on a roster of named participants to map the technical and policy questions animating the conversation. Maj. Gen. Jason C. Slider, who leads the Army's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, is included among the voices on training and preparedness. NATO-side expertise is represented by Eric Poulique, director of NATO's Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), and João Alves, a principal scientist at CMRE. The episode also features Paweł Zalewski, Poland's Deputy Minister of National Defence; Sam Bendett, an analyst with CNA and CNAS; Olena Kryzhanivska, a NATO-affiliated Ukrainian defense analyst; and George Barro of the Institute for the Study of War. Together, those participants frame the episode’s central theme: rethinking procurement, development, and training in the age of autonomy and AI.

What this means for the U.S. Army, NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, and allied defence ministries

• U.S. Army: The Army is actively incorporating advanced battlefield robotics into training at Fort Bragg and Clark Range, signaling institutional attention to preparing forces for autonomous and human-machine team operations.
• NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE): CMRE’s leadership and principal scientists are linked to NATO’s September maritime exercise, reflecting CMRE’s role in testing coordinated autonomous operations at sea.
• Allied defence ministries (represented by Poland’s Deputy Minister) and regional analysts (including a NATO-affiliated Ukrainian defense analyst): These actors are part of the episode’s cross-national conversation about how to buy, build, and train when autonomy and AI are central considerations.

How the episode frames buy, build, and train in the age of autonomy and AI

The debut episode of Defense One Futures is organized around practical, institutional choices rather than abstract predictions. It uses the Army’s range work and NATO’s maritime exercise as bookends to a discussion about retooling procurement, development, and training practices. By assembling voices from a special warfare school, a NATO research center, a deputy defence minister, and independent analysts, the episode makes clear that the conversation spans doctrinal, operational, and policy layers — from hands-on training at U.S. ranges to multinational experimentation at sea.

The recording does not offer a single prescription; instead it presents firsthand accounts and named participants to illuminate the tradeoffs and decisions militaries and allies are confronting.

For readers interested in the original source and to hear the conversation directly, the episode is available at Defense One: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2026/11/defense-one-futures-robot-wars-ep-1/417183/