by Anavi Khanna

Photo courtesy of Zachary Rufus

In the first 24 hours of the U.S. war on Iran, AI targeting tools powered by Palantir and Anthropic were used to strike over 1,000 targets. On July 12th, the U.S. military employed unmanned kamikaze drone boats for the first time in its history to strike a naval base in Bandar Abbas, Iran. These boats, employed for one-time use with a self-destructive goal, each cost nearly $1 million each. 

If Trump and his Pentagon get their way, robotic warfare will be the new normal. Buried in the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request is a number that has stunned even seasoned defense watchers: a whopping $54.6 billion for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG). Despite the informal connotations of its acronym, DAWG represents the Pentagon’s serious commitment to expanding the development and use of killer robots, or in more technical words, autonomous weapons systems–unmanned military systems that can conduct military missions with limited or no human oversight. 

The government’s emphasis on building an arsenal of autonomous weapons is not a recent development. DAWG is a refurbished version of a Biden-era program that sought to fast-track the acquisition of AI-powered military technology. However, there are two significant differences that set DAWG apart from its predecessor. 

The first is the FY 27 request amount itself. With $53.6 billion requested as mandatory funding and $1 billion left discretionary, DAWG’s funding request marks a 24,000% increase from the previous year’s budget of $225.9 million. This could instead fund SNAP benefits for nearly 8 million people, Medicaid for 2 million people, and public housing for another 2 million Americans. 

Second, Secretary Hegseth has signaled a long-term commitment to robotic warfare by announcing plans for a permanent institutional home within one of the military’s “combatant commands” for the consistent procurement and production of autonomous weapons systems. The $53.6 billion funding request is critical to safeguarding DAWG’s institutional permanence: it would give DAWG a headstart on funding and keep it going for multiple years before Congress needs to approve more funds. This would likely make it harder for Congress to end the program. 

In an ominous sign of how dangerous these weapons might be, the Pentagon directive behind missions like DAWG deliberately offers little room to govern the use of autonomous weapons. The directive specifies that “autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems will be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force,” but there is little consensus on what constitutes an “appropriate level of human judgment.” 

The Trump administration’s request of $54.6 billion for DAWG sets a dangerous precedent–our taxpayer money will aid the expansion of the nearly ungoverned use of robotic weapons and AI-powered technology, which will further lower the threshold for war. Limiting human intervention detaches us from the use of force, and the risks of dehumanization lower the bar to hold any administration accountable for its military decisions. 

And at a time when Americans are struggling to afford basic necessities, a federal budget that truly reflects the needs of its people should not allocate disproportionate funding for an autonomous weapons program that is facilitating war. 

It is worth noting that the vast majority of this funding faces a high hurdle in Congress. This year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which has yet to pass, is likely to include about $1 billion in funding for DAWG–already more than quadrupling previous spending. But the rest of the requested funding depends on whether Congress takes up the administration’s request for an additional $350 billion in spending on war and weapons. 

With more and more members of Congress balking at the administration’s $1.5 trillion war request, there is a real chance to defeat this. Every dollar Congress approves for the Pentagon will only prolong Trump’s war on Iran. Congress should work to end that war and slow the march toward robotic warfare.