The devil you know: Trust in military applications of artificial intelligence

On March 23, 2003, at the start of the Iraq war, a U.S. Army Patriot air defense battery shot down a British Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 over northern Kuwait. The Tornado’s pilot and navigator were both killed. The next day, a Patriot battery targeted a U.S. Air Force F-16 Falcon. The Falcon disabled the Patriot’s radar with a missile. A week and a half later, a Patriot battery shot down a F/A-18C Hornet over central Iraq, killing the pilot, U.S. Navy Lt. Nathan D. White. The U.S. Army was operating its Patriot batteries in “automated mode,” which allows missiles to fire without human interaction. After Lt. White’s death, the Patriot batteries were directed to switch to manual engagement modes requiring a human operator to give the order to fire. This change ended fratricide incidents by Patriot batteries. However, such a policy change may not have been possible had the Iraqi military posed a greater threat.

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