The ever-evolving process of the Army Warfighter continued as the U.S. Military Academy used the landscape of Cadet Leadership Development Training (CLDT) to determine if artificial intelligence could assist Army leaders with tactical operations. The Class of 2024 Cadets helped push that plan into practice during the second part of the training event from July 22-28 at Camp Buckner.
"... People across the Department of Defense are talking about the convergence and that's what's going on out here (during CLDT)," said John James, an associate professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "If you ask any of the cadets of anything they've done at West Point thus far, the theme is usually brought up that as they go out into the military, there will be a convergence of the use of artificial intelligence autonomy and robotics in their small-unit combat operations."
Maj. Grant Barge, course director at the Department of Military Instruction, guided eight companies through a simulated combat scenario with the help of paratroopers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
Senior and selected rising junior cadets entered lane 16, ready to improve their leadership, tactical and decision-making skills during CLDT. The Department of Military Instruction designed the two-week training event to emulate real-world combat scenarios applying three focus areas: lead under stress, tactical problem solving and individual technical proficiency.
Tactical officers and noncommissioned officers split the companies into two teams. Team Defense provided security for the notional village, defending against attacks and developing countermeasures to neutralize all threats.
In contrast, Team Offense's objective involved sabotaging a bridge that acted as a key supply route leading into the village, with their mission beginning 300 meters from their destination behind a wood line.
"... This is the culminating event of CLDT 2. I can't think of a better exercise to close their time here at West Point in a training event as complex as this lane is. It is force-on-force. Two platoons versus two platoons -- attack and defend with a notional company commander," Barge said. "The mission is complex, the terrain is complex, working with another platoon is incredibly complex, and when you add in technology, it just teaches these cadets the complexity of warfare."
As offense and defense hunkered down in their positions, ready to engage, each team's perspective robot was nearby, assisting them in their attack and defense efforts.
Multiple operators handled the robots and underwent various iterations to assist cadets, from high school and college students who interned at the academy to ROTC cadets from the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and the University of North Georgia.
Team Defense used a bulky square-shaped automated ground robot that maneuvered on wheels, aptly named the 'Dozer' also known as the 'Warthog.' Meanwhile, Team Offense got a bird's eye view of the terrain with the return of the improved Skydio X2D Color/Thermal drone, complete with an AI-driven autonomous flight engine.
The Skydio came with multiple features, including 360 obstacle avoidance, autonomous tracking, Global Positioning System-based night flight, Infrared radiation wavelengths, a 12-megapixel color camera and a thermal sensor.
During last year's CLDT, both offense and defense used multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to complete their mission. The integration of cadets using drones was a success. Under ideal weather conditions, cadets maximized their experience reacting to small UAVs during notional firefights and developing their intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) skills. However, Dr. Michael Novitsky, an assistant professor at the Department of EECS, recognized through an eye-opening experience at Quantico, Virginia, that West Point needed more than UAV's for future CLDT events.
"We were out in Quantico doing force-on-force against a team out of Annapolis. We were so focused on aerial power that when it got windy, we couldn't fly and then we were hosed (with rain)," Novitsky said. "We didn't have any of our air assets and now we were like, 'I guess we are going to do it the hard way and just send people' and I'm sitting their as a technologist thinking we put way too many eggs in that basket. I learned the hard way. We got demolished in that operation. I went back home and thought we need to put in some time toward ground assets."
And so, as the cadets familiarized themselves with their aerial and land automated robots, they also had to plan for a comprehensive integration of tactical force-on-force movements while using the robots efficiently.
"In the past, anytime a tanker unit has an engineer squad OPCON (operational control) or a chemical unit OPCON, we're protecting those (units) from a force standpoint, but we're going to deploy them at exactly the right point," said Lt. Col. Charles O'Donnell, an assistant professor at the Department of EECS. "That's what we're hoping, in theory, the cadets do during CLDT as they use the tech to get the mission done."
As both teams pressed the action with their robots, they learned, through success and failures, that effective reconnaissance and patience are powerful components of military conflict. Having the capability of finding out where the enemy combatants are, through AI, without risking a Soldier's life, limbs, or eyesight, presents a dynamic in military stratagems that will forever change how war is fought, and these cadets will likely be at the forefront of that developmental process. Thus, the training fields of Camp Buckner provide cadets with the foresight needed to physically and mentally prepare for that inevitability.
"For example, offense, as they are moving up toward the village, they don't know how (Team) Defense prepared their defenses. So, essentially, they can send out a drone rather than a recon team because usually a recon team, due to being so far out from the main platoon, take contact from combatants and most of them end up as casualties," Class of 2025 Cadet Andrew Wang explained. "But ideally, with a drone, they are able to maneuver while mitigating human risks and safely developing attack strategies to employ."
Team Defense set up their defensive perimeters by lining specific vulnerable points around the village with concertina wire (C-wire). Simulated claymore mines were also planted as the team strategically positioned themselves at avenues of approach, which are the likely paths enemies might take to breach the perimeter. The team was ready to respond quickly to any threats by placing defenders at these points. The positioning also helped to concentrate defensive firepower and increase the chances of repelling attackers.
In the realm of small-unit combat tactics, Barge, tactical officers and noncommissioned officers advised the cadets on the essentials of combat strategy; the significance of patience on the battlefield; proper use of resources and using the terrain as a tactical asset in battle. However, cadets were learning many vital lessons from the mistakes they made.
"We lacked tactical patience," Barge explained during an After-Action Review (AAR) with platoons from Foxtrot company. " ... What did you have at your disposal? You had C-wire, claymore mines and then the beauty of what? Natural obstacles. You had terrain, you had low ground here in the wood line, you had high ground for your own battle positions to get them to move down along firebreak road and down into the low ground, and you could’ve absolutely tore ‘em up, so it’s the emplacement of obstacles, tying in with terrain.
"What’s next? Weapons systems. What is your highest casualty-producing weapons system in the platoon: the M-240 machine guns. What about M-249 SAWs (squad automatic weapons)?" Barge rhetorically asked. "How many of them do you have? Those weapon systems need to be up in primary battle positions, observing, focusing with interlocking seconds of fire in that avenue of approach of where you are going to destroy the enemy.
"And lastly, indirect fire, so its obstacle with claymores, C-wire, natural terrain, and indirect fire weapons systems (IDF)," Barge concluded. "... Remember it’s not little jabs you need to focus on, it’s a knockout blow in a specific place where you are trying to destroy the enemy."
From a tactical standpoint, each team of the eight companies had to determine when it was strategically advantageous to deploy their perspective robots to reveal enemy locations.
The Dozer was deployed 28 times, assisting various cadet groups assigned to Team Defense and providing grid coordinates on Team Offense's location.
"I was impressed with a lot of the things we were able to get done, and I think a lot of the cadets underestimated the ability of the Dozer until it was time to see it in action and overall, everyone seemed thrilled," said Audrey Aldridge, a Ph.D. candidate at Mississippi State University who helped operate the Dozer for CLDT.
"There was one defense group in particular who used us to patrol a certain area because they assumed that if offense saw the Warthog patrolling at a specific location, offense would change the direction they were heading, which was an interesting tactic," she added. "We're not sure if it worked, but we did see a couple of groups on offense who would change their direction. For example, they were heading straight toward us and as soon as they saw the Warthog, they would veer in a different direction. I also think they were running because they knew that we could call in grid coordinates on them."
At one point, Team Defense called the Dozer operators to scan the tree line because they heard someone firing an M-240 machine gun. Aldridge and the Dozer operators moved the robot to the reported location and watched the tree line through the live camera feed on their laptop screen. There was no movement -- only static trees where Team Offense found cover.
Suddenly, shots rang on the live feed. Aldridge clicked a function on the system interface called 'pursuit,' which tracks the source of sounds. A red box flashed on the laptop screen, highlighting a part of the tree line where the thundering shots came from.
"On the data feed we were picking up, we were able to see where the sound was coming from," Aldridge said. "There is a red box that pops up that detects objects and it would flash when the 240 was fired, and it helped us in turn so that we can call in more exact grid coordinates," Aldridge said. "It showed us on the screen—the red box was on the top left corner of the tree line and it would flash whenever that 240 was fired and it helped because we couldn't physically see it through the trees."
As CLDT ended, cadets provided feedback to EECS faculty members on how the Dozer performed during the training exercise. Also, ROTC cadets talked about their experiences operating the Skydio drone.
Class of 2024 Cadet Samuel Mills, from the University of Pennsylvania, thought the experience gave him a better understanding of how to utilize UAVs properly, but he faced a few obstacles while handling the technology.
"Infrared capabilities in heavily forested areas were a pain sometimes," Mills said. "Thermal technology detects heat signatures, so in the late afternoon, it was really hard to use thermal capabilities, due to everything on the grid having strong heat signatures, but in the morning when there was overcast we can pick up subjects moving on the grid, however even when it's cold we can't really see well through the density of the trees sometimes."
From the West Point perspective, Class of 2024 Cadet Jeffrey Smyth felt the Dozer was an exceptional tool that allowed him to execute strategic movements.
"I really liked that anywhere I asked the (Dozer) to go, it was able to do it," Smyth said. "Roaming patrol across the Landing Zone, passing the mansion (in the village), following squads into the woods, making contact and giving me accurate grid coordinates was huge (with) identifying where the targets were."
However, while Class of 2024 Cadet Christopher Konin shared Smyth's sentiments, he also added some constructive criticism.
"We couldn’t use it to its potential because we haven’t received training on it," Konin said. "... Obviously, this was a hasty process, but full training to understand the capabilities would probably be necessary."
As warfare continues to modernize, West Point endures as researchers work to find innovative ways to set the bar on technological advancements and CLDT is one method that allows for West Point modernization to continue.
"In general, I look to see what we can do to improve technologies. We got feedback from the operators on whether something worked well, so I embraced the AAR aspect of what West Point has taught me, so that’s been very helpful," Novitsky said. "The other thing we looked at is what can we do as a technologist that presents that technology to the cadet quickly.
"Cadets got like five minutes tops because these company commanders don’t have a lot of experience. They are rushed for time—maybe an hour or two to plan out their strategy and then it’s go, go, go," he added. "So we’re going to present the technology in ways that are super easy to understand in a minute and making these more streamlined throughout the execution of the training. Those are the two big takeaways for us."
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