From unmanned drones to bomb disposal, robots are steadily becoming an ever bigger part of the military. But drones aren’t the only way that automation is changing the way we fight.

In our interview on the future of conflict, Peter Singer, author of Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, mentioned one ship in the works that’s only possible because of computerization: the USS Zumwalt.

“It will have a crew of 142 -- two generations ago, a ship of its size and role in the U.S. Navy would have needed about ten times that. That’s because of all these different roles on the ship, everything from firefighting to navigation to the engine room to cooks have all all been turned over to robotics.”

Singer views this as just one way that technology is integrating with human decision making to create a modern fighting force. It’s important, because according to him: “whichever military figures out how to bring [humans and robots] together is going to be the one that wins.”