US top Middle East commander tests new model of deterring Iran
As the Pentagon shifts focus to China and Russia, CENTCOM’s chief is banking on experimentation with unmanned surveillance and artificial intelligence to offset a smaller US footprint in the Middle East.
TAMPA, Florida – In an auditorium-style conference room at US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters, the top general overseeing all American military forces in the Middle East was beaming.
Flanked by executives from Microsoft, Google and Blue Origin, US Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla had just been presented with what he described as the best idea he had heard in long time — by a buck-sergeant still in his 20s.
Sgt. Mickey Reeve of the Massachusetts Army National Guard had coded his own computer program, a simulator to train soldiers to respond to incoming drone attacks, using only an aging personal laptop during downtime in his bunk at Prince Sultan Air Base in rural Saudi Arabia over the prior two months.
“Unmanned aircraft systems have been called the most dangerous threat to American soldiers since IEDs,” Reeve pitched to Kurilla and other top commanders gathered at MacDill Air Force Base.
