Gen. John Murray, commanding general of Army Futures Command (AFC), said the service branch will need a secure network and coding operations that would support artificial intelligence and autonomy on the battlefield, National Defense Magazine reported Monday.
Murray said Monday at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference that the Army will need to code and recode right on the battlefield to keep up with operational speed requirements.
“If you're going to keep up with a rapidly adjusting and thinking enemy, the ability to code and recode at the edge and do data at the edge is just incredibly important,” the general said.
The Army has launched a triad of pilot programs that aim to build a coding workforce for this need: a two-year data science master's degree program at Carnegie Mellon University, a one-year AI-focused program at the same institution and the Software Factory initiative.
Software Factory, based in Austin, Texas, will put soldiers into training for digital operations over a one-year period that will begin in January.
