Ethics of defence: On the responsible use of new technologies in a Future Combat Air System

European air forces plan to put a Future Combat Air System – or FCAS for short – into service in 2040. The conceptual preparations began in 2019, with the participation of Germany, France and Spain. The project is currently on the threshold of the technology development phase, which is expected to result in the provision of flight-capable demonstrators in 2026.

The fact that FCAS will be much more than ‘just’ a new combat aircraft compounds the complexity of the project. In fact, this is to be an overall system that, in addition to the manned aircraft, will comprise remote carriers as well as other platforms, some already in service and some which are (such as a Eurodrone) yet to be developed. The networking of the subsystems, their automated interaction, for instance in manned-unmanned teaming, as well as connections with systems on the ground, at sea and in space, make this undertaking even more complex. The capability to generate, process and provide large quantities of data is of key importance for such a highly networked system, as is the cross-platform coordination of mission planning and execution. To assure this, FCAS is to be equipped with a cloud architecture developed specifically for this purpose that will provide all mission participants with a comprehensive situational picture and plan the actions necessary for implementation, coordinate execution in real time and perform post-mission verification. If FCAS is realised as currently planned, this will be the largest European defence project of the next few decades, perhaps even of the 21st century.

The associated challenges are of a technological, strategic and political nature. And they have an important ethical and general social dimension. All these facets are closely related.

We need to face, and are looking forward to facing, this intellectual challenge. The Expert panel on the responsible use of technologies was founded in 2019 for just this purpose: as a platform, initiated by Airbus and Fraunhofer that will guide the development phase of the FCAS project from an overall societal and explicitly ethical perspective, in a close interaction of normative reflection and technological integration. The aim is to provide those entrusted with the development of the system with ethical requirements and a process model for their implementation. Such an undertaking is unprecedented world-wide; no comparable approach has ever been taken in the development of a pioneering defence project. In order to ensure a close and practice-oriented exchange, this panel includes engineers and information scientists as well as theologists, scholars from the humanities and social sciences, air force operators, the public contracting authority as well as other government agencies entrusted with foreign-policy and security-policy matters.

The discussions that have commenced and lie ahead are complex. They are largely based on premises that relate to an uncertain future. The first uncertainty is the fact that it is not possible to reliably forecast which technologies will be available in 2040 and thereafter. The same applies for the global security situation. Simply linearly projecting current trends would be too simplistic. Still, when discussing a future FCAS, we must assume parameters of a global, strategic and technological nature. What technological megatrends will we encounter in the coming years and decades? What sort of a world order will emerge? And what role will Europe play in it?

Technological progress will continue to accelerate in the coming decades, which will also affect the defence sector. Space will become an important security-policy component. Cyber-threats will become increasingly severe. We also anticipate that the systemic rivalry between the United States and China will continue, which will also impact military aspects.

As a result, the character of military conflicts will change: the parties will become faster, the situations more complex and less comprehensible. Digitalisation and automation will play a central role in tomorrow’s conflicts, with the result that critical infrastructures will become increasingly vulnerable. Information superiority, i.e. access to and evaluation of data, will be of decisive importance in the military conflicts of the future.

All these expectations affect an FCAS. The key question is not whether automation will be used in an FCAS. Without a high level of automation, a European system of this type would be ineffective, and thus pointless, in the global context. Rather, the question is: how can we ensure that an automated decision remains a human decision? What role must be irrevocably assigned to a human in an FCAS, and above all, how can we ensure this in the technological realisation? Or, from the engineering perspective: how can the responsible use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence be operationalised by design in an FCAS? Answers to these questions can only be formulated in a close intellectual and methodological interaction between normative assessment and technological realisation; and that is precisely our goal in the Expert panel on the responsible use of technologies.

We advocate conducting the necessary discussions with self-assurance, operating on the premise that the debate will not weaken our capabilities, but rather serve as a critical self-affirmation of European strength. That also means involving our FCAS partner nations France and Spain in this process in a timely manner.

The development of a European FCAS is currently in a very early phase. It is thus the right time to enter into a debate on the responsible use of new technologies. From now on, the two should be closely linked so as to ensure that technological development and its appropriate – specifically ethically responsible – application are two sides of the same coin.

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The members of the Expert panel on the responsible use of technologies (in alphabetical order):
Nora Bossong, Anja Dahlmann, Bruno Fichefeux, Sophie-Charlotte Fischer, Ulrike Franke, Gerald Funke, Thomas Grohs, Florian Keisinger, Wolfgang Koch, Ulrich Kühn, Christian Mölling, John Reyels, Frank Sauer, Hartwig von Schubert, Ellen Ueberschär, Johannes Winter, Nils Wörmer, Carl Wrede.

Airbus and Fraunhofer jointly initiated the Expert panel on the responsible use of technologies in 2019. Its most recent meeting was held in Berlin on 1 and 2 October. Experts’ backgrounds and information on the group’s work to date can be found at www.fcas-forum.eu

The article was published in the November edition of the newspaper “Behördenspiegel”.