Policy Proposals for Humanoid Robot Acquisition and Deployment in National Defense

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are reshaping the future of warfare. Humanoid robots, with their human-like form and growing autonomy, are emerging as keys in Manned-Unmanned Teaming systems, expected to perform complex tasks such as reconnaissance, logistics support, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear response, and casualty evacuation. While commercial humanoids are demonstrating remarkable capabilities, a significant gap remains for military applications due to technological uncertainties and the difficulty of pre-defining required operational capability. Conventional acquisition processes struggle to bridge this gap, creating bottlenecks in deployment. Therefore, this paper proposes a National Defense Humanoid Acquisition Strategy that reframes the acquisition process as a methodology for identifying and refining these requirements through iterative development. The strategy emphasizes a modular acquisition structure, operator-in-the-loop field feedback, and adaptive development for the flexible and timely integration of humanoid robots into future defense forces.