Whether some like it or not, this is the current situation in the field of Defense: the massive use of robots for practically all military activities, on land, sea and air.
And possibly the great trigger was the war between Ukraine and Russia, where it was proven that simple and cheap robots could do a lot of damage and paralyze the activities of one of the largest armies today.
For many years the USA has been using robots (the famous Predators and others) to act remotely, but in general they were sophisticated and expensive robots. And although many other countries developed their own more or less simple combat robots, their real usefulness was yet to be confirmed.
With the war between Russia and Ukraine all that has changed. All types of robotic devices, even the simplest civilian drones, have proven useful in interfering with and attacking the enemy. This is new and is changing the defense strategy of all countries.
Today everyone is looking for ways to use robots for almost all defense activities. Aerial and underwater drones to monitor, interfere and attack, and ground robots with different movement systems to do the same on land.
And furthermore, currently Artificial Intelligence is added to all these “systems” so that they intercommunicate with each other, and can make more or less complex decisions.
In the photo below you can see a drone (called Walkiria) launching a missile during tests carried out in the Arizona desert.
This military drone (it is capable of flying more than 5,000 km, is equipped with AI and stealth capabilities) costs much less than 10 million dollars, and can perform many functions performed by piloted combat aircraft that cost more than 100 million dollars. And they are testing the way in which several of them can accompany piloted aircraft to attack targets jointly.
A senior spokesperson for the US Department of Defense recently stated that his country would need to have several thousand “autonomous” systems in the next two years. And we have to be very clear that when they talk about autonomous systems, they are referring to robots (of all types) that carry out complex military missions without human intervention.
And that is a very important step, since these systems will have the capacity to kill people without another human being making the decision. In which case the question that arises is: who will be responsible for these deaths?
I think this is a case in which Technology does not help us become more and better human beings.
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