Enabling human-machine integration for contested environments

Christian A. Abney and Ronald M. Sega

Defense & Security Analysis, 2025, vol. 41, issue 2, 240-253

Abstract: In future contested environments, human-machine integration within tactical formations will be essential as soldiers are confronted with situations where humans alone cannot accomplish tasks due to overwhelming cognitive workloads and machines alone cannot accomplish tasks due to technology limitations. To enable human-machine integration, stakeholders throughout the defence community must consider critical factors within systems engineering, human factors and ergonomics, and artificial intelligence throughout the design and development processes. This article provides analysis and recommendations for developing human-machine integrated teams. Section 1 provides an introduction, section 2 outlines human-machine integration’s role in overcome military challenges, section 3 presents foundational human-machine integration concepts, and section 4 applies these concepts to recommend actions that will enable human-machine integration for contested environments. Ultimately, this paper proposes that militaries will achieve human-machine integration when soldiers and machines have a mutualistic relationship, where soldiers add value to the machines executing specified tasks, and machines add value to soldiers performing higher-level cognitive processing and decision-making.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/14751798.2024.2432591

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