Thirteen American service members have been killed and nearly 400 wounded since the United States began military operations against Iran in late February. Right now, as you read this, American ground crews are repairing runways, constructing protective barriers, and clearing debris from airfields across the Middle East so our aircraft can keep flying.
They are doing it in the open, under Iranian missiles and drones. Every one of them is exposed. Every one of them is at risk. The technology to do that work without a single human being in harm’s way exists today. It is deployed. It is ready. The decision to use it in Iran is the only thing missing.
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The principle is simple. Never send a human to do a dangerous job when a machine can do it just as well and more safely. The first contact with the enemy or with any serious threat should be made by a machine, not a soldier whose life we are unwilling to risk unnecessarily. For most of my career, I believed that and could not act on it. The technology did not exist. Now it does.
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Forward positions need berms, revetments, and dug‑in firing points. Damaged airfields need craters filled and surfaces compacted so aircraft can land and take off. Routes need obstacles pushed aside and culverts exposed. None of that work can wait for the shooting to stop. The logistics chain that keeps American forces in the fight runs through one of the most dangerous seats on Earth: the operator’s seat in a dozer, grader, or excavator. For most of my career, courage was the only way to fill that seat. Now, autonomous earthmoving systems can clear the route, repair the runway, and build the forward base with no one inside the cab.
I know what this costs. I have stood with the families. I have looked them in the eye. I have been to the funerals of men who were sent on missions that no machine could yet perform. That is the difference between then and now.
In 2014, I commanded U.S. Forces in Iraq as Iraqi troops fought to retake their country from ISIS. The single most requested piece of equipment for every offensive operation was not a tank, not an aircraft, not a weapon system. It was a bulldozer. The Iraqi soldiers driving those machines had some of the shortest life expectancies on the battlefield. They died in the cab because there was no other way to break through the barriers ISIS had built. I watched it happen. I have never forgotten it. No soldier, American or allied, should ever sit in that seat when a machine can go instead.
We have that machine now. And across the Middle East tonight, American troops are still filling the seat.
Waymo taught a car to drive itself on city streets. This is the same technology applied to 30-ton bulldozers in unmapped terrain, without GPS, under fire. The machines perceive and understand the ground, make decisions in real time, and do the work. No one in the cab.
Today in Ukraine, the war is fought from trenches, the way it was a century ago. Today in the Middle East, American airmen are repairing battle-damaged runways under active missile threat so our pilots can keep flying. Wherever American forces hold ground, earthmoving is as essential as any weapon system. And in too many of those places, we are still putting a human being in harm’s way to do work a machine could do instead.
For decades, we “bubble-wrapped” vehicles, added armor, and treated every road like a potential kill zone because we had no other option. In Iraq and Afghanistan, improvised explosive devices killed more than half of all U.S. and coalition forces lost in combat. Route clearance teams and explosive ordnance disposal specialists performed those missions with a courage that humbles me. They deserved a better option. So do the airmen repairing runways under missile fire tonight. So do the engineers building forward bases in contested terrain where no reliable GPS signal exists and no crew can safely operate.
Autonomous earthmoving systems directly address all three problems. Drones map the terrain, then unmanned bulldozers and excavators move in to breach obstacles and repair damage. They clear minefields without an operator in the field. They repair battle-damaged runways under fire without a single service member exposed. They build forward bases in GPS-denied environments with no crew on the ground. They do not fatigue. They do not make exhaustion-driven mistakes. They do not leave behind a family.
The broader national security challenge runs deeper than the battlefield. The rare earth minerals that power every American weapon system, every semiconductor, and every advanced technology our military depends on are sitting in unmined ground across the American West. Mining is dangerous, remote, and labor-intensive. The workforce that has done it for generations is aging out, and the next generation will not replace them. Autonomous earthmoving systems can operate continuously in those conditions. Securing that supply chain is a national security imperative, and this technology is one of the few ways to do it at the speed our security demands.
This is not a development program or a future capability. Autonomous bulldozers and excavators are operating in production environments right now, on multiple continents, with a zero-accident track record. The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army have already fielded them. Companies such as AIM Intelligent Machines are deploying this technology in mining operations, data center construction, and military airfield projects with one mission: keep human beings out of one of the most grueling and risky seats on Earth. The technology is ready. What is needed now is the decision to deploy it at the scale this moment demands.
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The men and women repairing those runways tonight in the Middle East volunteered for this. They raised their hands knowing the risk. They did it because they love this country more than they fear what could happen to them. They signed up to defend this country. To lead. To come home.
We finally have the technology to make sure they have a fighting chance. The only question is whether we choose to use it.
Retired Gen. Richard D. Clarke was the 12th Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, overseeing more than 75,000 elite personnel, including Army Rangers, Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Air Force Commandos, and Marine Raiders. He previously commanded the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment and led joint combat operations across Iraq and Afghanistan. He serves as an adviser to AIM Intelligent Machines, whose mission is to keep American warfighters out of harm’s way.
