Robots in warfare

The use of robots in warfare, although traditionally a topic for science fiction, is being researched as a possible future means of fighting wars. Already several military robots have been developed by various armies.

Some believe the future of modern warfare will be fought by automated weapons systems [http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/] . The U.S. Military is investing heavily in research and development towards testing and deploying increasingly automated systems. The most prominent system currently in use is the unmanned aerial vehicle (IAI Pioneer & RQ-1 Predator) which can be armed with Air-to-Ground missiles and remotely operated from a command center in reconnaissance roles. DARPA has hosted competitions in 2004 & 2005 to involve private companies and universities to develop unmanned ground vehicles to navigate through rough terrain in the Mojave Desert for a final prize of $2 Million [http://www.grandchallenge.org/] . The field of artillery has also seen some promising research with an experimental weapons system named "Dragon Fire II" [http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:_l1B7OvmmjIJ:www.defenselink.mil/transformation/factsheets/Dragon%2520Fire%2520II.pdf+dragon+fire+artillery&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1] which automates the loading and ballistics calculations required for accurate predicted fire, providing a 12 second response time to artillery support requests. However, weapons of warfare have one limitation in becoming fully autonomous: there remain intervention points which requires human input to ensure that targets are not within restricted fire areas as defined by Geneva Conventions for the laws of war.

There have been some developments towards developing autonomous fighter jets and bombers [http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=14221&ch=infotech] . The use of autonomous fighters and bombers to destroy enemy targets is especially promising because of the lack of training required for robotic pilots, autonomous planes are capable of performing maneuvers which couldn't otherwise be done with human pilots (due to high amount of G-Force), plane designs don't require a life support system, and a loss of a plane doesn't mean a loss of a pilot. However, the largest draw back to robotics is their inability to accommodate for non-standard conditions. Advances in artificial intelligence in the near future may help to recitfy this, but this also raises the ethical issue of whether it is safe to leave military ordnance in the hands of a non-human intelligence.

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*Robots
*AI
*Packbot