David Ignatius of The Washington Post today recounts his participation in last weekend’s meeting of the Aspen Strategy Group, which he describes as “a devoutly bipartisan forum” of current and former national security advisers and some journalists who discuss defense and foreign policy.

He comes away with this question: “Will the Pentagon, with its 30-year planning cycle for building ships, still be launching aircraft carriers in 2048—even though they’re highly vulnerable to attack today?”

Writes Ignatius, “Speakers at the conference described a new generation of combat systems, powered by artificial intelligence, cyberweapons, and robots that can operate on land, sea, and air. But America is still largely wedded to legacy weapons of the past.” He warns that China seems determined to seize the AI “high ground” of future conflict.

Ignatius quotes Christian Brose, staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as saying, “We have a small number of exquisite, expensive, manned, hard-to-replace systems that would have been familiar to Dwight D. Eisenhower. They are being overtaken by advanced technology.”

According to Ignatius, Brose argues that “…the Pentagon needs a large number of inexpensive, unmanned, expendable, autonomous systems that can survive in the new electronic battlespace and overwhelm any potential adversary.”

Of particular concern, Ignatius reports, is America’s vulnerability to information warfare, noting that one forum participant recalled being taunted by a Russian general for America’s shortcomings on this front.

“As the gathering concluded Monday, Republicans and Democrats were equally passionate about spreading the message that this is a Sputnik moment for modernizing our military,” Ignatius writes. “Competing with a rising China begins at home, with a more nimble Pentagon and a country that’s more united to face the big problems ahead.”