The British Army is reshaping battlefields through artificial intelligence.

 

The British Army

The British Army is reshaping battlefields through artificial intelligence.

The British military has reportedly begun employing artificial intelligence to reshape the battlefield and warfare in the air, sea, and land, according to the Financial Times on Wednesday.
Britain has allocated more than $1 billion to build a "digital targeting network" that uses artificial intelligence to integrate data from multiple sources, both military and civilian, into a single command network. This will allow the command to make faster and more accurate decisions about the speed of escalation, from surveillance to armed intervention against threats.

The British military uses the AI-powered "Domain Eye" program to monitor ship traffic and submarine cable routes, and to detect potential threats, enabling the operator to send drones or a naval vessel to intercept them.

The "Domain Eye" program was produced by the British company "Hadin," which used to work in the field of games, before directing its programs to serve the British army and help it shape the next generation of conflicts.

Richard Barrons, a former British general and one of the authors of the UK's Strategic Defence Review 2025, said, "Artificial intelligence is the backbone of the entire military architecture, and is now or will soon be at the heart of the targeting process."
Artificial intelligence speeds up the way humans process information and helps them make decisions under pressure.

The United States has previously deployed an AI-powered command and control system called "Maven," which was used in US airstrikes on Yemen in 2024, while NATO has adopted versions of this program.
In the skies, Britain is investing around $2 billion a year in the Global Combat Aircraft program, a sixth-generation fighter jet capable of "optional flight" that will be built in partnership with Japan and Italy by 2042, to operate alongside drones.

Underwater, however, Australia’s autonomous “Ghost Shark” submarines and submarine-detecting robots have become a reality, according to the newspaper.
According to experts, transmitting data on the battlefield without cell towers and overcoming intense electronic jamming is the first challenge that artificial intelligence is stepping up to solve.

Artificial intelligence also enables the processing of images and streaming data, reducing reliance on human operators and helping units make better decisions.
Artificial intelligence may redefine the concept of military power, reinforcing the idea that autonomous aircraft and robots can fill numerical gaps in warfare.
The length of NATO’s eastern border with Russia, which exceeds 4,300 km, has prompted a rethinking of how to use drones to compensate for the numerical shortage.

The war in Ukraine has also revolutionized robotics and the use of drones to repel Russian attacks.
The source explained that the next step is to integrate several mechanisms into a single control device.
In November, the Marines conducted an AI-powered training exercise that allowed soldiers to deploy swarms of drones to operate as a single unit.

But the increasing reliance on artificial intelligence raises ethical and legal questions about the ability of machines to distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Jessica Dorsey, from Utrecht University, said, "Humans are ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law."