Lethal Autonomy

The Future of Warfare Whether We Like It or Not

De: Frank Kendall

Narrado por: Kennedy Hall

A broad and thorough coverage of the future of warfare across all military domains—including space and cyberspace—that presents a clear, compelling, and well supported description of how lethal autonomous platforms will transform warfare.

The proliferation of the use of drones in the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides some indication of how warfare is changing, but Lethal Autonomy: The Future of Warfare goes much further, presenting compelling descriptions of how artificial intelligence and autonomous weaponry are going to transform conventional warfare, rendering current militaries almost entirely obsolete.

Beginning with a description of the attributes that have characterized advances in military technology and impacted operational concepts and organizations, Frank Kendall discusses the features that matter in warfare and the analytical basis for assessing new concepts. For each traditional military domain ground, sea surface, sea subsurface, and air as well as for space, cyberspace and multi-domain operations, he provides a detailed description of the concepts, building blocks, and complexities that have to be considered in designing forces incorporating lethal autonomy.

©2026 Frank Kendall (P)2026 Post Hill Press

Lessons let down by uninformed narration

HON Kendall has written one of the most important books on contemporary strategic affairs in recent memory, and you should read it. It’s not so clear that you should LISTEN to it. In just the first 1.5 chapters, one can enjoy the narrator’s creative or misinformed pronunciations of: Michele Flournoy; CSIS; the OODA loop; correlation of forces; JADC2; and others. Please, publishers, hire narrators either somewhat familiar with the subject material or, even better, willing to research how names, concepts, doctrinal terms, and institutions are pronounced. The failure to do so distracts the reader from the strategic insights in this book, which result from HON Kendall’s rare combination of experience and serious contemplation, and are particularly valuable regarding the force planning implications of proliferated autonomous systems.

Self-aggrandize publications should not charge

I really had high hopes given the title and my experience in the military and defense industry on the subject. After listening to Fank Kendall pat himself on the back and name drop over and over, and voice his TDS, chapter after chapter I had to stop. Never actually got to ANY original thoughts on Lethality or Autonomy. But certainly heard the self-aggradizement that apparently goes non-stop through Frank's mind on his love for himself.

Disappointing

Disappointing. Especially from an author with such an extensive and relevant background. The book is too broad, and not focused nearly enough. Mostly it is a shallow laundry list of capabilities and considerations, with very little comparative analysis. Save your time and read Paul Scharre´s ¨Army of None¨ instead.