Europe took a significant step towards autonomous warfare this week with the successful demonstration of its first autonomous military convoy in Seville, Spain. The showcase, funded by the European Union’s Defence Fund, featured a fleet of unmanned ground vehicles seamlessly performing coordinated logistics tasks. This development underscores Europe’s increasing investment in advanced military technologies and its ambition to compete on the global stage.
The project, known as COMMANDS (Convoy Operations with Manned-unManneD Systems), involved 21 European partners collaborating under the leadership of Spanish aerospace and defense firm Sener. The consortium received a €24.8 million investment from the European Defence Fund to develop this cutting-edge system.
COMMANDS aims to revolutionize how military vehicles operate in complex environments, particularly those with unreliable communication infrastructure like areas with weak or degraded satellite signals. The system seeks to seamlessly integrate both manned and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and aerial systems for enhanced operational effectiveness.
Central to the success of this demonstration is Naviground, Sener’s innovative command and control system. This AI-powered platform utilizes a suite of sensors, machine learning algorithms, and 5G networks to grant UGVs situational awareness. Essentially, Naviground empowers these vehicles to understand their surroundings and navigate autonomously without constant human intervention.
Sener has already put Naviground through its paces on various military platforms, including logistics assistants and tanks. In promotional materials, the company highlights Naviground as a “secret weapon” capable of significantly enhancing interoperability and information sharing between diverse military assets.
This technological leap forward aligns with broader efforts to modernize Europe’s defense capabilities. The European Commission has identified autonomous drones, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and AI-driven defense applications as critical areas for advancement. The commission emphasizes the urgent need for the European defense industry to accelerate its development and deployment of these technologies at scale.
The successful demonstration of this autonomous military convoy signals Europe’s growing commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology into its armed forces. It remains to be seen how quickly these advancements will translate into operational deployments, but it is clear that Europe is making a concerted effort to close the technological gap with leading militaries around the world.
