Desert wargames tax batteries, feed tech wishlist

The NZ Defence Force (NZDF) has emerged from a series of high-tech experiments with the US army with a wishlist for more strike drones, more powerful batteries and more integrated robots, but also with a need to get the basics right - like more help with flights home for soldiers.

The Pentagon has lauded the experiments for marking a milestone in drone lethality, but US media also reported computer servers overheated and batteries - evermore crucial to armies - died in the heat of the Mojave desert.

"A desert trial exposed equipment limitations and institutional hurdles in the army's push to modernize and keep pace with an AI-savvy adversary," said the Wall Street Journal.

Project Convergence Capstone is the premier US army experiment series across four months from May to August, including in July in the desert. It is also crucial for developing the glue to stick Five Eyes forces together to fight with AI-smart emerging technologies.

The partners' forces engaged in a mock battle against a US army unit called Blackhorse, mimicking a "near peer threat", which is commonly taken to mean China.

The NZDF summed it up in newly released debriefs: It "reinforced that future combat effectiveness will depend as much on technical expertise as traditional soldiering skills".

Constant surveillance and the threat of "top-attack" flying drone threats now defined the battlefield, it said.

"The activity reinforced the growing importance of power generation ... and the integration of UAS [unmanned aerial systems] ... and sensor-to-shooter capabilities as critical enablers of future combat effectiveness."

'Wolfpack' coming

The US army at Convergence tested a long-range aerial munition it said "independently identified and terminated" a high-priority threat. It was special because it could operate as a "wolfpack" to overwhelm enemy air defences. The munition could be fielded by next year.

A few dozen NZ soldiers joined in with the Australian army's leading human-machine team. In Convergence exercise Black Prince 3 they tested drones carrying explosives. The Australians have been exploring human-machine warfighting with Japan, too.

The NZDF said the Convergence experiments showed combat would depend on autonomous sensors that worked in fusion, machines to assist decision-making and an integrated communications network, as well as:

• Common data standards
• Soldiers needed to be able to make and repair drones on the battlefield - and have more electricity on hand to drive them and process all the data coming in
• The need for all sorts of aerial drones - long and short-range surveillance ones, and strike drones.

The lessons are expected to feed into the current review of the $12 billion Defence Capability Plan due out next year.

Back to basics

But some of the lessons were much more humdrum, such as accommodation being "poorly coordinated" and troops not having a single full day of stand-down in six weeks, plus:

• "Personnel received no input into travel options regarding differences between commercial and military return flights."
• They had to buy their own cleaning gear to get their kit ready for Customs.
• They were frequently forced to use the Australians' internet to keep contact with family or do admin tasks.
• Crucially, out in the field, they lacked technology to the point they "were unable to fully participate in planned experimentation activities ... This reduced the opportunity to collect meaningful trials."

A series of recommendations followed including one to test capabilities in New Zealand beforehand to reduce the technical risks once in the US.

NZDF told RNZ on Monday: "Exercises of this nature are demanding and are designed to prepare soldiers for operational service.

"The report identifies areas where we can potentially improve support arrangements, but it also highlights valuable training, experimentation, and interoperability achievements. We are using those lessons to strengthen future activities."

The Wall Street Journal's report showed the Americans struggled too: A drone meant to loiter was forced down by the desert glare; it took soldiers 10 minutes instead of one to launch another drone; others flew for half the maximum flight time to conserve battery and without full autonomy.

Dronemakers defended their products while critics pointed out to the WSJ the rich history of Pentagon tech snafus.

Senior officers stressed these were experiments and the goal was long term. "The core philosophy driving this modernisation is simple: push autonomous assets into harm's way instead of manned aircraft," said the army.

At what price?

Convergence crowns a $7b US army effort to modernise around the core of its Next-Generation Command and Control (NGC2) system.

Sixty companies are involved including Anduril, which supplies military drones to Canberra.

The overall push is called Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control and includes New Zealand and the other Five Eyes, Australia, Canada and the UK.

The tech problems extended to augmented-reality headsets glitching despite the US army talking them up beforehand. Contracts worth over $180 million have been signed for the headsets.

The price tags of the emerging military tech can be high - a current NZDF tender for a single polar surveillance drone is $20m and satellites can be in another league again.

On the flipside, the NZ army leaders concluded that Convergence 2026 had proved:

• "That the proliferation of low-cost ... systems has fundamentally changed the economics and character of warfare."
• "The NZ Army can accelerate capability delivery, reduce risk, and reduce costs" by aligning robot acquisitions and initiatives.

Power hungry

One recommendation was to investigate energy options.

"Power generation and energy resilience have become increasingly significant operational considerations," said one of the NZDF briefings.

"Decisions regarding energy consumption, battery replacement, charging cycles, and sustainment planning are becoming increasingly important across all tactical echelons."

The US army in a recent study said in addition to ammunition, food, fuel and water, "A fifth commodity is rapidly emerging as a decisive factor on the modern battlefield: electrical power."

Drones, electronic warfare weapons, sensors and communications platforms were power hungry.

But forces lacked the fast chargers, standardised batteries and supply plans for them, said the study.

Safety risks were mounting, with army trainers "experiencing a systemic uptick in catastrophic lithium battery fires, presenting a severe safety and environment hazard to the modern, technology-dependent force".

This comes six years after the Pentagon stated that "data is the ammunition" of the future, and after several series of Convergence, which New Zealand first joined in 2024.

The deputy chief of the NZ army went to Fort Irwin in California to watch Convergence experiments.

"The visit occurred within the context of rapid technological change being driven by advances in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, networking technology, software, communications, synthetic environments, and sensor fusion," one briefing said.

Many parts of the briefings were blanked out, for instance, Convergence "demonstrated that the fastest and most cost-effective path to increased combat effectiveness is [BLANK]".