The next battlefield isn’t “AI performance.” It’s AI provenance.

In warfighting conditions, the AI problem is not “accuracy.”

It’s provenance, drift, and adversarial influence—under contested operations.

If you can’t prove:

• what data entered the model
• what version is executing
• whether it drifted under new conditions
• whether it was poisoned or spoofed
• and how to roll back to known-good

…then you don’t have warfighting AI.

You have a decision hazard.

That’s why warfighting-grade AI governance looks like:

• provenance-locked inputs
• signed model/version control
• drift monitoring
• adversarial inject evaluation
• immutable audit logging
• human authority retained

Inevitability: AI will be fielded at scale only when it can be governed like a weapon system—inside sovereign boundaries, with evidence—not hope. [media.defense.gov]