The British Army is looking for AI-controlled robots that will allow troops to destroy bridges in combat.

From D-Day to the Iraq War, the annals of military disasters are replete with tales of paratroopers scrambling between bridge spars to load or disable explosive devices, harass or delay enemy convoys.

But if the British Army gets their way, the days of pioneers climbing dizzying heights and risking everything to strategically build bridges of scrap metal and concrete blocks laden with carefully placed plastic explosives are numbered.

The Department of Defense (MoD) has unveiled a project calling for the development of artificial intelligence robotic devices that could help identify weaknesses and then place the right payloads on targeted bridges, saving the lives of British soldiers at a time when troops are being impacted. enemy.

The initiative follows a new focus on the strategic importance of bridges in the conflict in Ukraine. The spectacular but not yet fully explained explosion at the Kerch crossing in Crimea last October, which destroyed much of the $3 billion bridge, is considered by Kyiv to be one of the most important strategic and propaganda successes of the war.

The Kremlin has previously suggested UK involvement in planning the attack on Kerch and separate attacks on Russian warships in the Black Sea using autonomous drones, but has provided no evidence to support its claims.

The £400,000 bridge demolition project, dubbed ‘Bridge to Fall’, is the latest attempt to put advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning at the heart of efforts to give British forces an edge on the battlefield.

The MoD briefing notes that it currently takes up to 30 specialized Royal Engineers to destroy a single bridge, forcing them to scrutinize the structure and expose it to a “dangerous situation” if enemy forces are likely to want to stop. demolition. It says they want to replace this “resource intensive” model and “reduce the number of Royal Engineers needed to demolish the bridge”.

Instead, the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), which oversees the project, says it wants to research a technology that “ultimately minimizes human involvement” in exploding bridges. According to the briefing, “ideally, in terms of timelines and legal liability, only human decisions will remain.”

To achieve such a goal, commanders require a device that can perform one or more of the most important tasks, namely to identify weak points in a modern concrete and steel bridge, place cargo, and physically place explosives. .

In a spec that at first glance appears to be taken from a James Bond movie script, the white paper suggests that contractors develop “unmanned cross-domain vehicles” — drones or robotic vehicles that can land and fly. able or water.

Defense Department sources said the tender, which calls for a prototype to be completed within six to nine months, should be seen in the context of the UK’s artificial intelligence policy announced last summer, which promises to provide the British military with the “most effective” efficient and … most efficient. reliable and influential” of this size when it comes to using AI.

However, a military demolition expert questioned the technology’s ability to adequately replace the trained soldiers currently required to demolish a large bridge.

Here’s what a former British military engineer with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan told us I“It will take years to fully figure out how to take down something like a 100m span without blowing yourself up and everything else in the kingdom. The idea that you can push a button and have some super drone do it for you seems far-fetched. Technology can provide really useful tools, but human experience is no substitute, especially in a combat environment.

The British Army developed several ways over the decades to use engineers to destroy bridges, including parachuting engineers on the night of the Normandy landings to destroy bridges likely to be used in German counterattacks, and pioneering the use of helicopters in combat. Night of the 1950s to send units behind enemy lines to break through enemy supply lines.

The latest surge of innovation comes in the context of preparations for the large-scale military confrontations that many strategists have foreseen in the past, but which have been resurrected since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The DSTL briefing states: “Recent world events demonstrate that large-scale maneuvers of troops and equipment remain a serious threat to the territorial integrity of our allies and partners. Having a reliable and adaptable way to limit an adversary’s ability to perform such maneuvers is now more important than ever. Bridges are a particularly important aspect of this.”

European Union Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton warned the bloc’s defense ministers this week that it must move towards a “war economy” to counter the threat posed by Russia and the growing polarization of international relations.

A Western defense source said: “A new reality is emerging in NATO capitals. Gone are the days when you could have minimal ammo and minimal troops and expect never to have to fight a major mobile war. he evaporated. Now we must be ready to wage a big war again, using whatever technology we can find.

Machine War

drones

Weapons that can function without human intervention, once the stuff of science fiction, are increasingly becoming a reality. The war in Ukraine has led to a huge increase in the use of armed drones. While the vast majority of them rely on a human pilot, some of the systems in use are believed to be capable of selecting targets using an algorithm, including the Russian Lancet kamikaze drone.

drone killer

A number of manufacturers sell systems designed to destroy drones by flying a high-speed interceptor to a weapon. MARSS, a British defense company, has developed an anti-drone product with “autonomous capability,” meaning it can automatically launch and neutralize an incoming drone or missile.

chemical weapon sniffer

More and more autonomous vehicles are becoming available on land. Manufacturers are trying to emphasize the ability of this technology to keep soldiers at a safe distance from enemy threats. British defense contractor QinetiQ is offering its TITAN autonomous vehicle capable of testing chemical or biological warfare agents and evacuating the wounded.

Cajal Milmo