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Copyright 1985 U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report

August 26, 1985

SECTION: Special Report; Pg. 46

LENGTH: 691 words

HEADLINE: Will Computers Fight The Battles of the Future?

BYLINE: By ROBERT A. KITTLE

HIGHLIGHT:
The Pentagon wants lifelike warfare devices -- even ones that scan the brains of fighter-plane 
pilots.

BODY:
	Will robots replace foot soldiers on the battlefield? Will machines with humanlike 
intelligence supplant military commanders as the grand strategists of war? Such intriguing 
questions, once confined to science fiction, now punctuate the Defense Department's real-world 
planning.

	A billion-dollar Pentagon program, known as the Strategic Computing Initiative, is 
reaching out for a new generation of computers with certain human capabilities -- vision, hearing, 
speech, common sense and expert knowledge. Such computers would be many times more 
powerful than the best currently available.

	''We're pursuing computer intelligence -- machines that will in many ways be able to 
emulate human beings,'' says Robert Cooper, outgoing director of the Defense Advanced 
Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

	Since 1983, DARPA has undertaken several pilot projects for the military services that try 
to teach computers to imitate the way humans integrate seemingly unrelated data to make judgments 
and solve problems. This is a quantum leap from the ability of today's instruments, most of which 
store large volumes of  facts and use them in a prescribed manner.

	A robotlike vehicle being developed for the Army is designed to see where it is going and 
follow unfamiliar roads and unmarked terrain, avoiding obstacles in its path. An eight-wheeled 
prototype now being tested is equipped with an array of sensors, including a video camera 
mounted on the top, laser-beam radar that gives its computers a three-dimensional view of the 
landscape and infrared detectors that enable it to navigate in darkness.
 
	Because of the billions of computations necessary to analyze imagery from its sensors to 
detect its surroundings, the driverless test vehicle can crawl along at only 3 miles per hour. Such 
visual tasks as distinguishing a log in its path from a shadow sometimes daunt the computerized-
vision system. With better computers, researchers hope to boost the speed to about 40 mph. If 
perfected, the machine could spy on enemy positions or go into battle as an unmanned tank armed 
with highly accurate guns.

	For the Air Force, DARPA is building a ''pilot's associate'' to aid aviators in aerial combat 
by doing chores that now are done manually, such as taking evasive action to avoid incoming 
missiles. The device would follow a pilot's instructions spoken in English and supply verbal 
information. Gone would be the banks of dials and switches restricting pilot proficiency in a 
dogfight.

	McDonnell Douglas is working on another system that would, in a sense, read a pilot's 
mind. By monitoring brainwaves, pulse, heartbeat and other vital functions, the computer would 
determine a pilot's alertness and give out only the amount of information the pilot seems capable of 
absorbing.

	DARPA's project for the Navy is to devise a computerized ''strategist'' to help 
commanders orchestrate a complex engagement at sea involving an aircraft-carrier battle group and 
its scores of surface ships, submarines and aircraft. Shipboard computers would instantly analyze 
intelligence gathered from radar, satellites and other detectors, then recommend actions.

	A long way to go. Enormous technological obstacles still must be overcome before 
computers can perform chores that come naturally to humans. For example, to endow a machine 
with ordinary common sense will demand a 10,000-fold increase in the storage capacity and speed 
of today's most advanced computers. For use in weapons, these superintelligent devices must 
decrease radically in size and cost andbe able to withstand the rigors of the battlefield. Beyond that, 
skeptics fear that the Strategic Computing Initiative could lead to military reliance on computers, 
making accidental conflict more likely.

	But proponents see these developments as ways to exploit the West's technological edge 
over the Soviet Union, which lags years behind the U.S. in military applications of computers. 
They maintain that such advances could negate the Soviets' huge numerical advantage in tanks, 
troops and aircraft. Says DARPA's Cooper: ''We could markedly change the strategic balance 
between the superpowers.''