Why Should We Care About Drone Warfare in the Indo-Pacific?

Retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan–author of three recent books on the future of warfare–joins our hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso to discuss how autonomous weapons (drones) are challenging our military assumptions, and their implications for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.

Mick draws lessons from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and asserts that drones don’t necessarily mean the obsolescence of current inventories of manned weapon systems, but will require significant cultural and organizational changes to integrate them into our strategies, tactics and force structure.

Mick considers the U.S. “Replicator” project to field drones at high volume, and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s notion of turning the Taiwan Strait into a drone “hellscape” for any potential invasion. He also talks about how developing countries can lever ...