Photo: British Army / Supplied
The Defence Force says it does not use the term "kill web" regarding high-tech military exercises it has been involved in in the United States, but is preparing to be more combat ready for the "battlefields of the future".
Learning from experimentation activities led by a larger military was a "cost-effective way to understand new methods and technologies", it told RNZ.
The Pentagon's new strategies call for more allied involvement in higher-tech military experiments.
US wargame commanders say they are focused on integrating allies' systems with AI-boosted weaponry to make faster "kill chains" and develop a "kill web".
They have referred to China having a "kill web" of surveillance satellites over the Indopacific, and especially the western Pacific, that can target any US assets they choose.
The NZDF has taken part twice in the Project Convergence exercise - most recently in March in California with four other nations and the US - and till now been an observer at a series of Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE), it said.
At Convergence, "the overarching goal is to develop connectivity so that any sensor can provide threat information that feeds a command centre that can then task the 'best shooter' to target the threat", the US National Defence Industrial Association said.
NZDF Colonel Pat Beath said the government's defence policy and strategy called on it to be "better prepared for combat operations" in a deteriorating global and regional security situation.
"The NZDF does not use the term 'kill web'," Beath told RNZ in a statement on Friday.
"Our key objective at GIDE remains focused on ensuring we are interoperable with our security partners."
He called Project Convergence a "multinational continuous military experimentation activity".
The wargame experiments have included kamikaze drones targeted by AI sensors on fighter jets, and a constellation of satellites.
"This year, we have increased the threat envelope to 10 times what we did last time," a US commander said.
"The entire Joint Force and with our UK and Australian teammates and allies, we're able to effectively move data for the first time in an IndoPacific scenario at a magnitude never seen before."
Beath said the NZDF was working closely with Australia, to confirm it can deliver as part of a coalition force on the "battlefields of the future".
It was focused on being interoperable with allies, a credible security partner and supporting an international rules-based system if the government called on it, he said.
