On 5 December 2024, GLOBSEC US Foundation held a high level conversation in Washington DC focused
on the implications of a fully digitized battlefield, as we see evolving in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The
Ukrainians have fully digitized their battlefield in a way we have not witnessed in previous conflicts, in a
manner that is far advanced from what the U.S. itself could do at this moment.
Ukraine’s war platform is able to take real time information from drones and digitally move that in a nanosecond to firing
platforms that engage their target, and before the adversary has a time to respond and destroy the
source of that attack, that Ukrainian platform has moved. There are no humans involved in the transfer
or processing of that data. This is hyper-warfare. Is this a good or disconcerting development? Are allies
able to operate in tandem? Will the enemy work to attack autonomous, mechanized systems, or
continue to attack humans in arbitrary attacks? What is the role of the private sector vis a vis
government in supplying the quickly evolving software tools to operate in such a conflict?
Today, the tools of modern warfare are coming from firms like Palantir, Microsoft, and others and are
circumventing the sluggishness of government procurement and military adoption. These firms are
supplying the Ukraine government directly. What are the opportunities and concerns here?
To answer these questions, we convened a group of high level policy makers, representatives of the
private sector, and exports, with General (Retd.) John R. Allen offering initial remarks and reflections.