From 1998 to 2000, I was the Chief of Staff of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. Our primary mission was to look at technologies and tactics that would chart the future of the Corps. One of my primary visions for the future was to partner robots and infantry marines in a combined arms team. At the time, AI was nascent and I was a tad suspicious of giving the bots autonomous kill decisions, but it was obvious that day was coming. We were experimenting with existing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). The vision was to create a swarm of robotic skirmishers around a platoon or squad that could scout, and protect flanks and rear. We also envisioned the possibility of very small and micro-robots infiltrating enemy fortifications and buildings. We also explored the possibility of using directed energy non-lethal weapons to clear buildings where non-combatants were present. I believed our vision was ahead of the other services at the time.

In 1999, we partnered with Andy Marshall's legendary Office of Net Assessment (ONA) organization to fight a 2030 based simulation pitting a high-tech U.S. force against an equally high-tech Chinese force attempting to take Taiwan. Our Blue Force included autonomous surface and subsurface vessels, swarms of small Kamikaze drones and highly mobile autonomous smart mines. Marine Corps amphibious landing forces also had autonomous armored vehicles and swarms of micro-robotic scouts and infiltrators. The technology for such systems was nascent, but we believed we opened a window into the future of warfare.