A long quote from the article: It’s hard to see such a radical change to the makeup of the brigage combat team as anything else than a budget move, borne out o

A long quote from the article: It’s hard to see such a radical change to the makeup of the brigage combat team as anything else than a budget move, borne out of the necessity of cutting the personnel costs that eat up almost half of the service’s total budget. Cone used the Navy as an example of what the Army is trying to do. “When you see the success, frankly, that the Navy has had in terms of lowering the numbers of people on ships, are there functions in the brigade that we could automate — robots or manned/unmanned teaming — and lower the number of people that are involved given the fact that people are our major cost,” he said. If the army goes down this route, it will still have a high cost of personnel. It will require engineers and programmers to build and maintain these systems, and many of these personnel will be required to work on the front line. Well, a ship has a decent power supply. The Nimitz run on nuclear reactors that keep them going for months. A factor in their success is their sheer size, boasting a displacement of 92,000 tons.