Select and engage targets without further intervention by an operator
15 December 2025 (Brennan Center for Justice). Definition of autonomous weapons systems under DoD Directive 3000.09, referenced in the 2025 NDAA's oversight provisions for waivers of such systems. Quoted by Amos Toh, Brennan Center for Justice, August 2025.
The Good, Bad, and Really Weird AI Provisions in the Annual Defense Policy Bill
Who else?
What it refers to: Autonomous weapons, which under the Directive require senior Pentagon sign-off before development, such as drones firing on military installations without operator confirmation.
Other voices
- “Robots decide who, where and when to kill” Noel Sharkey,
- “They can perform more ethically than human soldiers” Ronald C. Arkin,
- “The ADF may need to shift to people being on the loop” Malcolm Davis,
- “Spending merely 20 seconds reviewing a target identified by AI algorithms” War on the Rocks,
- “Autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow” Future of Life Institute,
- “Making autonomous AI systems with a mandate to neutralize threats is incredibly dangerous” David Krueger,










