This integration of AI into the military is intended to contribute to a more precise and effective use of military power through speedier decision-making and the efficient allocation of resources. Notably, AI enables the real-time processing of large amounts of information from data-transmission networks on air, land, and sea. As the 2022 US National Defence Strategy, published during the Biden presidency, summed up: military AI offers a "technological edge [that] has long been a foundation of our military advantage”. Since then, Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s Secretary of War, has promised that the US military will become "an AI-first warfighting force across all domains, from the back offices of the Pentagon to the tactical edge on the frontlines”.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which was established in 1983 and has responsibility for the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia, has been at the forefront of introducing new military technology into combat since the Gulf War of 1990-91. This early post-Cold War conflict saw the deployment of laser-guided smart bombs, stealth aircraft, and GPS for the first time. More recently, CENTCOM has led on the development of military AI through three task forces: The army’s Task Force 39, the navy’s Task Force 59, and the air force’s Task Force 99.
For several years before the war with Iran these three task forces tested military AI systems across CENTCOM’s area of operations, including the Gulf region. Army Task Force 39 established its counter-drone testing and training program in Saudi Arabia. Task Force 59, the US navy’s first ever unmanned and AI task force, operated from a hub in Bahrain (and Jordan). Since its establishment in 2021, it has led the way on the use of AI-driven hybrid fleets comprised of manned and unmanned systems in naval operations.
Prior to the current war, US officials always refused to say whether AI had been integrated into CENTCOM combat operations against Iran. However, the US military made no secret of its deployment of AI technology to the Middle East to support combat operations more generally. This included the use of AI-enhanced computer vision algorithms to improve precision targeting in air strikes in Syria and Iraq. AI has also been used against Houthi targets in Yemen, specifically to locate rocket launchers and identify and surveil vessels in the Red Sea. "Dronebuster”, the portable counter-drone system, and ULTRA, the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, were also deployed to Jordan and the UAE respectively.
Since the start of the war with Iran, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper has acknowledged that the US has used a "variety of advanced AI-tools” to process data on all aspects of the conflict. The use of AI to identify and strike targets has been a widely criticised aspect of this endeavour. Several investigations have blamed faults in this process for the tragic destruction of Shajareh Tayyebeh girls school in southern Iran in late February 2026 that left an estimated 170 dead, mostly children.
Less controversial has been the US military’s growing embrace of commercial AI tech to counter different aspects of the Iranian threat. In May, for example, the US navy adopted an AI program developed by a San Francisco tech-firm to teach underwater drones to locate Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz, reducing greatly the need to use navy personnel in mine hunting operations.
The US sees military AI as a political as well as a technical asset. The 2022 US National Defence Strategy singled out the AI "innovation ecosystem” as a driver of relations with our "allies and partners”. Prior to the current conflict, CENTCOM’s first chief technology officer made the same point. CENTCOM’s status as a leader in military AI, she explained, is "critically important” as a "partnership mechanism” that can develop relations with regional allies.
This was evident in CENTCOM’s February 2023 "Scarlet Dragon Oasis” exercise. It used AI to reduce the time it takes for units working together from different services to make the correct resource allocation of bureaucratic tasks. This aligned closely with a pre-war priority of GCC militaries to develop programs that integrate AI into human resources and logistics to improve efficiencies at the operational and strategic levels.
On a bigger scale, CENTCOM’s "Digital Ocean” program uses hundreds, if not thousands, of floating sensors to police the 3.2mn square miles of international waters that make up CENTCOM’s area of responsbility. Such AI-driven capabilties are extremely important for GCC states, which lack the human capital and large navies required to provide security over this huge expanse of water.
Michael Brown, Director of the Defence Innovation Unit at the Pentagon between 2018 and 2022, has characterised the Iran conflict as "the first AI war”. He and many others have argued that this conflict, on top of the war between Russia and Ukraine, has demonstrated the central importance of "smart” and "unmanned” weapons and adaptive commercial technology for the future of warfare.
But the Iran war, like the Russia-Ukraine war, has also highlighted the strategic and operational limits, as well as the moral ones, of military AI. Neither CENTCOM’s pre-war status as America’s leading AI command, nor its AI superiority over Iran has led to a speedy military victory, or even contributed in any sustained way to the re-opening of the Straits of Hormuz to maritime traffic.
And while American military AI appeals to local actors facing unprecedented security challenges, Washington’s long-term partners in the Gulf and elsewhere would rather operate in a stable and secure strategic environment where the focus is on civilian AI and economic development. No amount of dazzling military technology can obscure that fact.
- The writer is Professor of International Politics and Director of the Small States and Energy Studies Programs at Georgetown Univeristy in Qatar@RoryDavidMiller