The autonomous warfare command announced by the Pentagon weeks ago is not enough on its own to prepare the U.S. military for a battlefield dominated by drones and other unmanned systems, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Oct. 16 in Washington.
Speaking at an American Primary Aluminum Association event, Petraeus said unmanned systems now account for more than 90 percent of Russia’s front-line casualties in Ukraine, with both sides deploying roughly 10,000 drones daily. He called the current conflict “an unmanned systems war,” adding that traditional armored platforms like tanks are increasingly vulnerable.
Autonomous warfare command and broader change
Petraeus credited Washington with taking “commendable steps,” including creating a new Autonomous Warfare Command and directing each service to establish its own component. However, he argued that neither the United States nor any NATO ally has begun the urgent, revolutionary institutional changes that current warfare trends demand.
He said the United States needs a new concept of operations that cuts across force structure, training, procurement, personnel policy, and basing. That would mean replacing significant portions of legacy, heavily manned systems with cheaper, more numerous unmanned platforms and integrating autonomous capabilities at scale.
“What’s going to happen is we’ll see the introduction of autonomous systems really for the first time in warfare,” he said, urging leaders to ensure the new organizations catalyze deeper reform rather than exist as stand-alone structures.
Ukraine as a warning of the future
Petraeus pointed to Ukraine’s experience as a preview of future conflict. Drones and other unmanned systems have allowed Kyiv to offset a smaller and less resourced force against a larger adversary for nearly five years. In 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the creation of an Unmanned Systems Forces branch, and officials have repeatedly emphasized the priority of autonomous weapons development.
Zelenskyy said in July that Ukraine could produce up to 20 million unmanned systems this year, though production is constrained by shortages of trained operators and key components such as optics, gimbals, brushless motors, and fiber-optic cable.
Procurement built for rapid iteration
Petraeus said the United States must rethink how it buys weapons, building substantial manufacturing capacity that can surge and iterate rapidly. He described a model in which software is updated weekly and hardware is refreshed every few weeks, reflecting the pace of battlefield innovation seen in Ukraine and the continued adaptations by Russian forces.
U.S. support to Ukraine and interceptor stocks
Addressing concerns that the conflict with Iran has undermined support to Kyiv, Petraeus said U.S. assistance to Ukraine remains a matter of policy choice. He acknowledged that Washington has expended a significant number of missile-defense interceptors, which complicates sharing with partners. A September estimate by the Congressional Budget Office found that the fighting has consumed between one-half and two-thirds of certain interceptor inventories.
“We can help the Ukrainians in any way in which we decide to assist them,” Petraeus said, emphasizing that decisions on support are fundamentally political.
The Pentagon’s evolving approach to unmanned and autonomous capabilities echoes broader efforts across the U.S. military, including initiatives highlighted at events like AUSA 2026. For Ukraine, sustaining large-scale drone production and deployment will continue to depend on support from partners such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the wider NATO alliance, even as Kyiv presses ahead with its own innovations.