The AI Arms Race: How Emerging Technologies are Shaping Modern Defence Strategies

February 11, 2025

AI is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. From helping brewers create the perfect pint to speeding up insurance claims and helping the NHS screen patients faster and more accurately. But perhaps its most dramatic and innovative applications over recent years have been in the defence sector. Here we look at the transformative impact of AI on modern defence strategies and how nations are integrating the technology into their military operations to gain strategic advantages.

Growing market

Global defence sector spending on AI applications was said to be $9.2 billion in 2023, and that figure is set to reach $38.8 billion by 2028. It’s a rapidly-growing market and involves software and hardware technology as diverse as drones, training and surveillance which are being designed and implemented in order to enhance efficiency, strengthen capabilities and protect lives.

Military AI applications include: warfare platforms, surveillance and situational awareness, logistics and transportation, cybersecurity, information processing, threat/target monitoring and tracking, command and control, simulation and training and battlefield healthcare. Let’s look at some of these applications in more detail.

Autonomous systems

Drones have many applications in civilian life, including recreational photography and videos as well as monitoring climate change and inspecting electricity pylons, but their most notable recent use is in defensive strategies where they’re used for such things as surveillance and reconnaissance, assessing hostile terrain and facilities that might otherwise be inaccessible. Their use reduces risk for human beings, preventing injury and worse, and increases operational efficiency. Capable of operating in swarms or independently, AI-enhanced drones can analyse territory in real time detecting possible threats and delivering data and insights so that real-time decisions can be made quickly and effectively.

Cybersecurity

According to one IT specialist, so far in 2024 there have been 35,900,145,035 known data breaches worldwide. That’s around 8,975,036,259 every month that compromise sensitive data in the civilian and commercial sectors. Imagine, then, the damage that cyber criminals could do with information they procure from defence forces around the world. It’s no wonder that defence strategies now put cybersecurity at the top of their agenda to protect both sensitive information and critical infrastructure and also to potentially disrupt threats from hostile agents. AI-enabled cybersecurity systems utilise a range of strategies such as advanced encryption, firewalls, threat and intrusion detection systems, response mechanisms and encryption protocols to protect sensitive information against harmful digital threats. Offensively, AI-enhanced cybersecurity systems can both disrupt and degrade an enemy’s potential threat by disabling command and control systems, interrupt supply chains or distribute misinformation to confuse and disorientate an enemy’s capabilities. 

Training

Given the changed nature of defence, traditional training methods such as weapons handling skills, drill, combat skills and survival training today must be enhanced with AI-augmented simulation training that prepares defence forces to analyse and prepare for an increasing number of eventualities. Inserting AI into training programmes enables personnel to use neural networks and machine learning to experience combat situations with unparalleled levels of realism, enhancing its effectiveness, reducing costs and minimising risks. Using technology such as computer vision and augmented reality as well as multimodal interaction and neural language processing, military skills can be assessed and practiced in safe environments, and in a variety of other situations such as strategic planning, crisis management, chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear scenarios, as well as in logistics and supply chain management.

The nature of defence is changing rapidly due to geopolitical shifts, increasing climate instability and technological innovation. How nations respond to these challenges in the future will depend on how they invest today. An increasing reliance on AI is transforming how global security is maintained and as the sector accelerates and develops new technologies, new skills are required to develop and maintain them. New technologies require new software and systems specialists, and emerging talent that has expertise in creating specialised hardware, components and AI development.

For more detailed analysis of what the future holds for the defence industry, download our Asset, ‘The Future of Defence 2030: Spending Projections and Technological Shifts’ here.

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