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1 [1] (January 6, 2026)

handle is hein.crs/govetcu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service lnformning the Ieg s ative debate since 1914 Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies Senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials have identified a number of emerging technologies that could have a disruptive impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. These technologies include * artificial intelligence, * lethal autonomous weapon systems, * hypersonic weapons, * directed energy weapons, * biotechnology, and * quantum technology. As these technologies continue to mature, they could hold significant implications for congressional oversight, U.S. defense authorizations and appropriations, military concepts of operations, and the future of war. Artificial ntellgence Although the U.S. government has no official definition of artificial intelligence, policymakers generally use the term Al to refer to a computer system capable of human-level cognition. Al is further divided into three categories: narrow Al, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and artificial superintelligence. Narrow Al systems can perform only the specific task that they were trained to perform, while AGI systems would be capable of performing a broad range of tasks, including those for which they were not specifically trained. Artificial superintelligence refers to a system that could exceed human-level cognition across most tasks. AGI systems and artificial superintelligence do not yet-and may never-exist. Narrow Al is currently being incorporated into a number of military applications by both the United States and its competitors. Such applications include but are not limited to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; logistics; cyber operations; command and control; and semi- autonomous and autonomous vehicles. These technologies are intended in part to augment or replace human operators, freeing them to perform more complex and cognitively demanding work. In addition, Al-enabled systems could (1) react significantly faster than systems that rely on operator input, (2) cope with an exponential increase in the amount of data available for analysis, and (3) enable new concepts of operations, such as swarming (i.e., cooperative behavior in which uncrewed vehicles autonomously coordinate to achieve a task) that could confer a warfighting advantage by overwhelming adversary defensive systems. Narrow Al could, however, introduce a number of challenges. For example, such systems may be subject to algorithmic bias as a result of their training data or models. Researchers have repeatedly discovered instances of racial bias in Al facial recognition programs due to the lack of diversity in the images on which the systems were trained, while some natural language processing programs have Updated January 6, 2026 developed gender bias. Such biases could hold significant implications for Al applications in a military context. A number of U.S. government documents, including the Pentagon's Responsible Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Implementation Pathway, provide guidance on these applications. Letha Autonomous Weapon Systems Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) are a class of weapon systems capable of independently identifying a target and employing an onboard weapon system to engage and destroy the target without manual human control. LAWS require computer algorithms and sensor suites to classify an object as hostile, make an engagement decision, and guide a weapon to the target. This capability would enable the system to operate in communications-degraded or -denied environments where traditional systems may not be able to operate. LAWS are not yet in widespread development, and some senior military and defense leaders have expressed concerns about the ethics of ever fielding such systems. For example, in 2017 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva stated, I do not think it is reasonable for us to put robots in charge of whether or not we take a human life. Currently, there are no domestic or international legal prohibitions on the development of LAWS. However, approximately 30 countries have called for a preemptive ban on the systems due to ethical considerations, while others have called for formal regulation or guidelines for development and use. DOD Directive 3000.09 establishes department guidelines for the development and fielding of LAWS to ensure that they comply with the law of war, applicable treaties, weapon system safety rules, and applicable rules of engagement. Hyperson c Weapons Hypersonic weapons-which fly at speeds of at least Mach 5-are in development in a number of countries, including the United States. There are two categories of hypersonic weapons: * Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) are launched from a rocket before gliding to a target. (When HGVs are mated with their rocket booster, the resulting weapon system is often referred to as a hypersonic boost-glide weapon.) * Hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM) are powered by high-speed engines throughout the duration of their flight. In contrast to ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons do not follow a ballistic trajectory and can maneuver en route to their destination, making defense against them difficult. Currently, no defense against hypersonic weapons exists,