Yanis Hankaoui: The Army in the Digital Age: Contemporary Technologies and Transformations in Combat Operations, as illustrated by the ‘digitisation of the battlefield’

Since the mid-1990s, the armed forces have faced organisational changes that have called into question certain founding principles of the contemporary French military. The concept of the ‘revolution in military affairs’ has come to be used to describe the range of restructuring measures faced by Western armed forces during this period: professionalisation, changes in missions, and the digitisation of the battlefield (NEB). This field of research has generated a wealth of literature, characterised by multidisciplinary contributions (sociology, political science, management science, history, etc.) which illustrate the interest of the social sciences and the military institution in these issues. It is recognised that the Digitalisation of the Battlefield (NEB) constitutes one of the three major ‘transformations’ that have shaped the Army over the past twenty years (Lebraty, 2010). The introduction of information and command systems (SIR, SICF, CITEL) in the late 2000s and their widespread adoption across regiments during the 2010s represented a major turning point in military equipment and, subsequently, in the structure of the armed forces and the methods of conducting military operations (Godet-Sanchez, 2008). This trend continues as the armed forces are engaged in the development of new technical systems (Scorpion, Titan) and the associated doctrinal considerations.

Thus, like various sectors of activity and a wide range of professions, the military sector is no exception to the trend sometimes referred to as ‘digitalisation’ (Bouiller, 2016).Information and command systems, and more recently artificial intelligence, are the subject of numerous technological promises, which claim to herald a revolution in the purposes served by the armed forces, in military equipment and even in soldiers’ practices. This research project aims to better understand the realities associated with this introduction of digital technology in its most recent forms, through an analysis of operational activity. The thesis will seek to understand how digital technology is integrated into the operational activities of regiments, how it fits into the broader ecosystem of tools used by military personnel, and how combat practices are consequently reshaped to varying degrees. The focus will be on the adoption of new equipment, the effects on individual and collective professional practices, and the potential transformation of these practices and forms of collaboration and cooperation in an operational environment. This research thus aims to make a twofold contribution: to our understanding of the effects of the introduction of digital technology in the armed forces and the corresponding changes; and to the emerging sociology of military activity (Jankowski, Thura, Muxel et al., 2021).

The thesis will focus specifically on the digitisation of the battlefield and will seek to answer the following question: how does the prescribed and actual use of information and communication systems in an operational context contribute to redefining ‘military combat activity ’ (Bardiès, 2011) (practices, skills, hierarchical relationships, environment, etc.); and the subsequent effects on the organisational structure of the Army’s tactical groups. To this end, we will endeavour to carry out a detailed analysis of the activity undertaken, of the visible and less visible dimensions of what is being done, of the materiality of the work and in particular the handling of tools, and to seek to understand the practices, the actions, their logic, and their individual as well as collective aspects. Several subsidiary questions will inform this research, such as the effects of ICT on officers’ decision-making autonomy and individual strategies to avoid the potential loss of their traditional prerogatives; organisational changes (increased control and reporting or the maintenance of a constant level of subsidiarity); and the actors’ perceptions of technical transformations, etc.