Pentagon Revises Targeting Doctrine to Allow AI-Initiated Decisions

The U.S. Department of Defense quietly revised its battlefield targeting doctrine in April 2026, opening the way for AI to initiate actions under human monitoring. According to Bloomberg, the revised targeting principles shift away from "'human in the loop' systems, in which a human initiates actions," toward envisioning "systems where AI initiates actions with human monitoring." The change creates room for deeper AI involvement in critical wartime target selection and decision-making (Bloomberg).