The $54 billion to launch the US Autonomous Warfare Command has been requested in a separate budget reconciliation bill, and its passage is not assured
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
US military plans for autonomous systems are running into money and people, not just technology.
According to Defense One, earlier this year the Pentagon requested $54 billion for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the money would be used to get the new command (AUTOWARCOM) off the ground. The administration put the request not in the $1 trillion defense budget but in a separate budget reconciliation bill, a process that began to be used for defense spending only last year. A Pentagon official said the department is pushing for a bill of "a minimum of $350 billion, potentially more," and confirmed there is no backup funding plan: the money is being sought through this bill. Retired two-star general John Ferrari (AEI) said: "Either the money shows up by Christmas or it ain't coming," because in January the new Congress will have no reconciliation; without it the organization will lack the buying power it needs. The Pentagon, per the text, has little force structure that earlier functional commands could draw on; the Army renamed its Futures and Concepts Command the Futures and Autonomy Command and made it a component of AUTOWARCOM. Mark Cancian (CSIS) argues that a four-star command focused mainly on acquisition is not the best structure and proposes a model like the Missile Defense Agency (three-star, with its own large budget).
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