Original Broadcast Date: 5/31/2026
Presented by Maximus
US Southern Command is moving quickly to reshape how the military approaches autonomous warfare, and Commander General Francis Donovan says success will depend on far more than unmanned systems alone.
Speaking at SOF Week 2026, Donovan describes the command’s new Autonomous Warfare Command as a joint effort designed to connect military operators, technology developers, industry partners, and combatant commanders into one coordinated framework. He says the goal is to ensure autonomous warfare becomes fully integrated across every service instead of developing in isolated pockets.
“You have the requirements coming from the joint force forward,” Donovan says. “For autonomous warfare, I believe autonomous warfare has to be joint warfare.”
Donovan explains that without a unified approach, the military risks creating disconnected capabilities across the services instead of maximizing the value autonomy can deliver on the battlefield. He says SOUTHCOM wants to create a stronger demand signal that ties operators directly to technology developers while helping vendors and investors understand operational needs more clearly.
The Autonomous Warfare Command is designed to serve as the connective structure that synchronizes those efforts.
Donovan says the organization will move toward initial operational capability quickly with a small, agile structure rather than a large traditional headquarters model. He says Colonel Ian Fletcher of the Marine Corps will serve as the first commander and will focus initially on understanding how each military component already approaches autonomous operations.
“We don’t want to do brick and mortar right away,” Donovan says. “It’s very different, dynamic, maybe an example of what we experienced in the DIUG, small team moving fast, connecting, driving demand signal, and then delivering a product.”
While autonomous platforms often receive the most public attention, Donovan says the real foundation of the strategy is data architecture. He explains that autonomous warfare depends on the ability to connect systems, share information across the region, and create data flows that allow military services and partner nations to operate effectively together.
“It’s really the data architecture environment,” Donovan says. “How we tie those across our hemisphere and across the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”
That focus on data sharing also supports one of SOUTHCOM’s major priorities: improving domain awareness across the region. Donovan says partner nations consistently raise concerns about tracking illicit aircraft, monitoring maritime activity, and identifying criminal operations operating in ungoverned spaces.
He says autonomous systems can help provide persistent awareness over large geographic areas while sharing information with both US forces and regional partners.
One of the early concepts SOUTHCOM is exploring is what Donovan calls the “Hemisphere Maritime Pursuit Craft,” an unmanned vessel capable of traveling 2,000 nautical miles while collecting data continuously during operations. The information gathered would support multiple organizations simultaneously, including partner nations and Joint Interagency Task Force South.
“The partner gets it, we get it, JIATF South gets it,” Donovan says. “We’re all getting smarter.”
Donovan also connects the autonomy mission directly to broader geopolitical competition in the region. He says criminal organizations and designated terrorist organizations often operate in the same ungoverned environments where malign state actors such as China, Russia, and Iran seek influence through financial activity and infrastructure investments.
He believes improving domain awareness helps expose both criminal and state-sponsored activity at the same time.
“What we’re seeing is a bit of a nexus,” Donovan says. “The more we create domain awareness and identify those nefarious actors, at the same time we’re picking up the threads of what these malign actors are doing.”
As SOUTHCOM builds its autonomous warfare capabilities, Donovan says logistics and partner integration will ultimately shape what systems can succeed operationally. He notes that sustainment, launch locations, and regional partnerships all determine how effectively autonomous systems can be deployed across the hemisphere.
“If it’s a boat, it comes from where, launched by who, maintained by who,” Donovan says. “Those are real questions we have to look at.”
He repeatedly emphasizes that logistics remain central to military success regardless of how advanced technology becomes.
“Logistics are the backbone of everything we do,” Donovan says.
The command’s broader vision reflects Donovan’s belief that future warfare requires adaptable, tailored forces rather than relying solely on traditional large-scale deployments. He says autonomy will become a key part of building that more flexible force structure while helping SOUTHCOM operate effectively across a complex and geographically expansive theater.
“I don’t always need to carry a striker,” Donovan says. “What I need is the right balanced force tailored for our missions at hand.”
As the Autonomous Warfare Command rapidly takes shape, Donovan says SOUTHCOM’s priority remains creating a joint, connected, and operationally relevant framework that delivers capabilities quickly while strengthening partnerships across the hemisphere.