Army special operations officials are developing a new robotics tech warrant officer career field that would be dedicated to incorporating robots and autonomous systems into military operations.
The new military occupational specialty is still pending approval, but U.S. Army Special Operations Command is “piloting the development of a Robotics and Autonomous Systems MOS for the Army,” Lt. Col. Allie Scott, director of public affairs for USASOC, told Task & Purpose. “Once approved, the MOS will be open to any Army MOS, and eventually to non-prior service recruits, as a [robotics and autonomous systems-focused] career path.”
The warrant officers who would become 390A Robotics Technicians would initially be part of Army special operations forces formations, officials with the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School told Task & Purpose — the same school that would be tasked with training these new warrant officers.
The 390A soldiers would possess technical expertise when it comes to robots and autonomous systems. The school is also planning for higher-level warrant officers at the 3 and 4-grade levels “which will take some time to develop” to be able to advise commanders on how to deploy the new technology in tactical operations, Elvia Kelly, a spokesperson for the special warfare school said.
“We’re moving out on the establishment of a robotics tech warrant officer because we think we need somebody that can plan robotics and autonomous systems operations, integrate those operations into broader operations, and then somebody that can manage the attritable consumable platforms and the payloads and then deliver that capability to soldiers that are at the forward edge,” Brig. Gen. Jason Slider, commander of the special warfare school, told Task & Purpose.
Officials said the MOS is “contingent” on approval and resourcing from Army headquarters, Special Operations Command and Army Human Resources Command.
“We are confident that we will be affecting this transition,” Christopher Surridge, a spokesperson for the Army told Task & Purpose.
Army photo by Spc. Marquis McCants.
Once approved, the Army intends to open the new military occupational specialty to the most “qualified” soldiers which would include those with backgrounds in robot and autonomous systems and “who preferably have experience in special operations or maneuver tactics and understand regulations governing the use of [Unmanned Aircraft Systems] is a starting point,” Kelly said.
“We already have those people in your formations. You’ve seen them — coders, builders, drone builders, drone flyers, hobbyists — they already exist. The people are here,” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, commander of Army Special Operations Command said at a warrant officer forum at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington D.C. in October.
Initial interest has come from Special Forces noncommissioned officers with “operational experience” with robots and autonomous systems as well as warrant officers and NCOs trained as RQ-7 Shadow drone operators. Since the Army is moving away from using Shadow drones, “these soldiers are looking for another avenue to continue their service as UAS subject matter experts, and 390A may be a good fit for some of them,” Kelly said.
Some of the first soldiers that Army officials in charge of force structure plan to convert into the new robot technician jobs, will come from 180A soldiers who are experts in planning and carrying out operations in unconventional warfare, according to Surridge.
Subscribe to Task & Purpose today. Get the latest military news and culture in your inbox daily.
The warfare school’s first pilot class is “tentatively scheduled” to start in January 2026 and will last five months, Army officials told Task & Purpose. These soldiers would be part of the new 21st-century career field focused on robotics and autonomous systems which would help inform future Army decisions and “develop the deep expertise necessary on the modern battlefield,” said Scott with Army Special Operations Command.
Also around that time, the Army plans to open up the MOS to recruits without prior service, Surridge said.
Prepping for the modern battlefield
The creation of the new MOS comes from lessons learned on battlefields in Iraq, Syria and Eastern Europe where robots and autonomous systems are being used to drop munitions and perform reconnaissance missions in lieu of putting actual soldiers in harm’s way. As the Army undergoes a transformation in the way it uses emerging technology, Gen. James Rainey, who leads Army Futures Command has said: “We have the ability, and I think the moral responsibility, to not trade blood for first contact with the enemy.”
Braga, who is in charge of the service’s special operations, said the new position addresses a “risk” that the Army is putting on soldiers and the broader military by not having a dedicated career field for experts in robots and autonomous systems.
“I don’t think it’s an additional duty that we can rest our laurels on and think we’re going to out-compete the Chinese and the Russians at by being an additional duty in an already saturated career field,” he said at AUSA, adding that this emerging technology will impact every MOS and branch across the service.
With special operations leading the charge, Braga hopes it will eventually lead to transformation across the broader land force.
“Does this work for the rest of the Army? We’re smaller inside Army Special Operations Command and we’re fortunate to have great people to experiment,” Braga said. “I hope it leads to other thought experiments across the Army.”
Army photo by Christopher Estrada.
The Army is still developing its training and doctrine for “human-machine integration” which will dictate how the service plans to use robots alongside human formations but officials have previously said that they envision uses for refueling and port logistics to free up soldiers to make battlefield decisions.
Beyond the national security needs, Braga suggested that growing robotics expertise in the service could help attract new, young talent to the service which just hit its recruiting goal after a two-year slump.
“We’re missing the ball when we go out and talk to every high school in America that you don’t specifically talk to robotics and STEM clubs and say, ‘We got a jersey for you. Come on in and build badass drones for the U.S. Army,’” Braga said at AUSA.
Officials are planning for the new warrant officers to be incorporated into the Army’s latest force structure, updated in February 2024, which removed 3,000 authorized special operations billets. The changes are part of the military’s departure from counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as it begins planning for potential large-scale conflicts.
How exactly the new field would fit into the service’s existing force structure, was not immediately clear.
Slider, commander of the warfare school said that the new MOS design came from the need for greater robot and autonomous system expertise in future conflicts. The school currently teaches an internal Army special operations course based on lessons learned from wars abroad but Slider said that the “cognitive load” required to manage and incorporate new technology into training and operations is “too great” to come from a single course where soldiers only earn an additional skill identifier.
The special warfare school plans to partner with the Army’s Artificial Intelligence Integration Center on developing the 390A robotics technician’s coursework. As a prerequisite, the school plans to send 390A candidates to its Robotics and Unmanned Systems Integration Course where students learn to fly and build drones, manage battery packs and payloads, and deal with jamming and counter-drone measures.
Candidates for the new MOS would first attend Warrant Officer Candidate School at Fort Novosel, Alabama. After finishing, these soldiers would attend the Warrant Officer Basic Course at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School’s Special Forces Warrant Officer Institute, officials said.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- Navy relieves commanding, executive officers of Naval Repair Station Japan
- ‘The Hunt For Red October’ ends in Wyoming as fan lands the giant sub used in the movie
- Army arrests ‘person of interest’ in homicide case of soldier found dead at Ft Leonard Wood
- How Army tank crews earn the right to name their tanks
- Naval aviators killed in Mount Rainier crash flew dozens of combat missions over Red Sea