Agent Network: How the Pentagon Plans to Deploy AI for Faster Battlefield Decision-Making

• Agent Network will deploy AI agents to deliver battle decision options to commanders
• Agent Network is one of the Pentagon’s seven Pace-Setting Projects under the AI Acceleration Strategy
• Join a dedicated AI panel at the 2026 Navy Summit on Aug. 27

The Department of War is accelerating its transformation into an AI-first fighting force to operate more efficiently and maximize battlefield lethality. As adversaries race to weaponize AI, the Pentagon is scaling the deployment of the technology to ensure that the U.S. does not fall behind.

To move at machine speed and maintain a decisive edge, the department launched Agent Network, a new initiative that embeds AI into battle management.

The Potomac Officers Club will host a dedicated panel on AI at the 2026 Navy Summit on Aug. 27. The Building the Golden Fleet With Software: AI, Digital Engineering and the New Shipbuilding Stack panel will bring together Navy and industry leaders to examine how AI, software and digital engineering can transform shipbuilding. Get your tickets here.

What Is Agent Network?

Agent Network, announced in June, is an AI-enabled system designed to accelerate the flow of intelligence and aid decision-making worldwide. The War Department said Agent Network will connect users with AI agents that continuously monitor operational systems and scan for intelligence to deliver decision options to commanders within seconds. 

The technology was developed under the Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy, a defense initiative to achieve military AI dominance. According to the Pentagon, the effort builds on the core command and control capabilities developed by Palantir Technologies, the company behind the Maven Smart System, and Lumbra, an AI defense company that provides AI orchestration technology to the U.S. government.

“By pairing established defense technology leaders with innovative new entrants, we are building an interoperable network of AI agents that gives commanders faster access to better information while keeping human judgment at the center of every targeting decision,” Chief Digital and AI Officer Cameron Stanley, a 2026 Wash100 Award winner, stated. 

Agent Network was designated as the second of the seven Pace-Setting Projects, or PSPs, that the Pentagon unveiled in January. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office will lead the PSP with initial operating partners U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Southern Command. 

How Is the Pentagon Addressing AI Safety Concerns?

The Pentagon emphasized that the Agent Network does not make targeting or strike decisions. AI agents merely provide commanders with an accurate picture of the battlefield to make informed choices. 

The AI agents will also undergo “rigorous testing, operational evaluation and oversight” to maintain efficiency and ensure that the technology continues to uphold legal and ethical requirements. 

The department has been using AI agents even before the Agent Network was announced. In March, Google announced that Agent Designer, which enables users to create their own AI agents, is available to DOW personnel through Gemini for Government on GenAI.mil. An unnamed source from the Pentagon told Breaking Defense that, five weeks after the tool became available, military and civilian personnel created over 100,000 semi-autonomous AI agents to do various tasks, from analyzing images to drafting reports. 

Robert Malpass, deputy chief digital and AI officer for intelligence at the Pentagon, shared at an event in April that the department has safeguards in place for AI use. 

“I will give a big shout out to our test and evaluation team that has been working tirelessly on how to evaluate the safety, the trust, the reliability of workflows that are incorporating AI,” he stated.

Amina Al Sherif, who was recently appointed as field chief technology officer for AI and defense at Google Public Sector, will sit down with industry and military leaders to discuss delivering C2 and driving interoperability on the battlefield during the Connective Tissue: Project Overmatch, CJADC2 and Network-Centric Warfighting panel at the 2026 Navy Summit on Aug. 27. Secure your seat here!

What Are Pace-Setting Projects?

PSPs are built around a working model defined by aggressive timelines and measurable outcomes. Each project falls under a single accountable leader working alongside a partner organization, and results are reviewed monthly by the deputy secretary of war and the under secretary of war for research and engineering. 

During his keynote at Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Artificial Intelligence Summit in March, Stanley spoke about his office’s three-pronged approach for PSPs:

• Rapidly deliver AI tools into the hands of warfighters
• Determine challenges that slow down capability delivery 
• Identify capabilities ready to scale across the force

What We Know About the Pentagon’s Other Pace-Setting Projects

The PSPs are categorized into three mission areas: warfighting, intelligence and enterprise. Agent Network falls under warfighting. 

Warfighting

Swarm Forge is a mechanism to accelerate fielding and scale the deployment of autonomous systems.

In January, the DOW conducted what officials said was the “first-ever kinetic drone swarm on U.S. soil.” At Camp Blanding in Florida, troops deployed four first-person view drones, some of which were equipped with explosives, toward a column of inflatable tanks. 

Another demonstration, called Crucible 2, was scheduled to take place at Camp Blanding in June. CDAO selected AeroVironment, Anduril Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Palantir USG, Shield AI and 20 other companies to participate. 

Ender’s Foundry is intended to develop AI-enabled simulation capabilities to combat AI-enabled threats. 

Intelligence

Open Arsenal aims to fast-track the pipeline that turns technical intelligence into deployable capabilities, shortening a process that once took years to just hours.

Project Grant is expected to shift deterrence away from fixed postures and guesswork toward dynamic pressure backed by data-driven results.

Enterprise

GenAI.mil provides department-wide access to frontier generative AI models from OpenAI, Google and xAI. CDAO also moved its GAMECHANGER policy search tool from the War Data Platform to GenAI.mil in June.

The Pentagon formed a task force to accelerate the rollout of GenAI.mil across components. The platform has over 1.2 million discrete users as of April, according to Jacob Glassman, deputy assistant secretary of war for science and technology foundations in the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. All military services, except the Coast Guard, have adopted GenAI.mil as the default enterprise gen AI platform.

Enterprise Agents is an initiative that aims to establish a playbook for building and deploying AI agents securely and quickly.

Where to Learn About Military AI

Navy leaders will discuss the potential of AI to accelerate fleet modernization and enable the integration of emerging naval technologies at the 2026 Navy Summit on Aug. 27. The Building the Golden Fleet With Software: AI, Digital Engineering and the New Shipbuilding Stack panel will cover the introduction of AI-native tools to enhance the service’s shipbuilding capabilities. The panel will also explore the use of digital twins and the application of digital engineering practices to modernize the shipbuilding ecosystem. 

Panel speakers include:  

• Shery Thomas, enterprise IT officer at the Naval Installations Command
• Robert Keisler, senior scientific technical manager and data science and analytics engineering competency manager at the Naval Information Warfare Center
• Edmond Kuqo, DevSecOps expert at the U.S. Navy
• David Voelker, zero trust architecture lead at the U.S. Navy
• Rich Sussman, director of business development of SAIC

Several keynote speakers are also expected to tackle the evolving role of AI in the Navy. Barry Tanner, acting chief information officer of the Department of the Navy, is expected to discuss scaling the use of agentic AI tools for daily operations. Michael Vernazza, commander of the Naval Information Forces, may also explore the potential of AI and machine learning in information warfare.

Register here to hear directly from the leaders advancing the Pentagon’s AI strategy!