{"id":313761,"date":"2026-03-05T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313761\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T05:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:30:08","slug":"ministry-of-defence-considers-uses-of-ai-in-war-ex-air-force-mp-says-front-line-wants-more-people-and-bullets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313761\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry of Defence considers uses of AI in war, ex-Air Force MP says front line wants more people and bullets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deputy Secretary of Defence Anton Youngman told MPs on the foreign affairs defence and trade select committee that the \u201ckey point\u201d of the ministry\u2019s research was \u201cthe ability of defence forces to collect and analyse data at speed will increasingly be the key determinant of military advantage\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said this could be broken down into the ability to \u201csense and collect data, as well as the systems and algorithms that are required to turn that data into insights for decision-makers\u201d.<\/p>\n

The LTIP document noted \u201cinnovations in AI<\/a> and ML [machine learning], autonomous systems and robotics are actively shaping the human-machine relationship in novel ways, where the role of humans will increasingly shift from directly controlling defence systems to guiding them\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said AI will eventually \u201callow for uncrewed systems to navigate, make decisions and co-ordinate among platforms without human input\u201d.<\/p>\n

Costley<\/a> agreed with Youngman that \u201cwe need the data and that gives commands critical insights and decision-making ability\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Costley made a pitch for increasing the Defence Force\u2019s headcount.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to need people out there and there will be some stuff technology will never do and you need actual boots on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis looks great in the office, but you go up to First Battalion and ask them what they need and they\u2019ll say, \u2018gimmie a couple more hundred people and [a] bunch of bullets, please\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youngman said the military needed investment in technology and the traditional front line. <\/p>\n

He noted the war in Ukraine had shown a \u201cquick learning loop\u201d on the front line as soldiers rapidly came to grips with new technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deputy Secretary of Defence Anton Youngman told MPs on the foreign affairs defence and trade select committee that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[109425,365,8133,95,9556,363,364,9442,51075,18205,3105,1403,37850,170431,5760,1668,129,1360,78,51928,9557,15220,29391,28874,130,6368,111,139,69,1118,10711,384,312,145,5662,7188,14638,6149,17013,1533],"class_list":{"0":"post-313761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-advantage","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-analysis","11":"tag-and","12":"tag-artificial","13":"tag-artificial-intelligence","14":"tag-artificialintelligence","15":"tag-better","16":"tag-bullets","17":"tag-considers","18":"tag-data","19":"tag-defence","20":"tag-deployment","21":"tag-exair","22":"tag-force","23":"tag-front","24":"tag-gaining","25":"tag-having","26":"tag-in","27":"tag-increasingly","28":"tag-intelligence","29":"tag-line","30":"tag-mean","31":"tag-ministry","32":"tag-more","33":"tag-mp","34":"tag-new-zealand","35":"tag-newzealand","36":"tag-nz","37":"tag-of","38":"tag-officials","39":"tag-people","40":"tag-says","41":"tag-technology","42":"tag-think","43":"tag-uses","44":"tag-wants","45":"tag-war","46":"tag-warfare","47":"tag-will"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}