'Human-Machine Collaboration' Could Be Key to New Offset Strategy: In the midst of Britain's Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work let a European audience in on the thinking behind the US response to the rise of powerful potential adversaries armed with increasingly sophisticated weapons using conventional and nonconventional strategic approaches.
"The third offset strategy will be based on increased human-machine collaboration and combat-teaming," Work declared. Work's comments were taken from a late draft provided by the Pentagon.
The increasing effectiveness of unmanned systems, he noted, particularly autonomous systems capable of learning operations, will result in increasingly dynamic operations. "When combined with human-machine combat learning, these smaller dynamic systems will be even more agile, lethal and effective," he said Thursday during an address at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) here.
"The margin of technological superiority the West has enjoyed for the past 25 years — particularly in guided munitions — is eroding," he said, explaining the need for a strategy to offset enemy strengths.
