The Power Trap: Why AI’s Energy Demands Risk Undermining American Operations in the Indo-Pacific

The U.S. military's rapid integration of artificial intelligence is straining power, connectivity, and satellite communications infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific, according to a report from Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University. Continuous AI inference workloads at the tactical edge sharply increase power consumption and dependence on beyond-line-of-sight links, which electronic warfare can sever in contested environments, forcing platforms onto localized processing that dramatically reduces effectiveness.