The entire world is in arms race trying to make their military stronger by any means possible and proving their hold in the region or the entire planet. Most of it is led by the US, China, and Russia and it does not only involve the nuclear warheads. The US recently tested the Mother of all Bombs and Russia answered with the Father of all Bombs while China continues to develop its aircraft carrier fleet rapidly along with missile interceptors and anti-ship ballistic missiles.
Technology is penetrating fast into the military, and it has gotten as far as replacing human soldiers. Pentagon has awarded a contract worth $11 million to Six3 Advanced Systems for building a “combined-arms squad” with both humans and robotic capabilities.
The Pentagon has awarded an $11 million contract to build a ‘combined-arms squad’ of human and robotic capabilities. The firm will design, develop, and validate prototypes of the new system, and plans call for completion until 2019. The arms squad “combines humans and unmanned assets, ubiquitous communications and information, and advanced capabilities in all domains to maximize squad performance in increasingly complex operational environments.”
Experts have emphasized that robotic weapons will become a much more significant portion of warfare than they already are, so much that they could even take over the human presence on the battlefield as soon as a decade. Beginning with unmanned trucks and aircraft to ghost fleets of underwater drones, the military has put autonomous technology to its ultimate use, and this is not limited to the US alone. Russia has been trying to integrate robots into the battlefield.
A security consultant with a 20-year career with the GCHQ, John Bassett says that the deadly combat robots are becoming the reality of warfare. “Intelligent robotic weapons – they’re a reality, and they will be much more of a reality by 2030. At some point around 2025 or thereabouts the US Army will actually have more combat robots than it will have human soldiers,” he said.
Mr. Basset is not alone in his thoughts; a strategist for the New America Foundation Peter Singer said armies should be prepared to fight against killer machines. “It’s not just when is it going to happen, but we don’t yet know, is it going to privilege the offense or defense, what are going to be the affects of it,” he said. He also suggested that the US Congress should hold a classified hearing on where the US stands in comparison to its enemies in terms of cyber warfare. “We don’t want to fall behind,” he added.