Robot armies - another military revolution?

[Joanne98]

by Ilya Kramnik
Global Research, April 5, 2008
RIA Novosti

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - The political and human impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been widely reported and much discussed.

But of even greater historical significance, is the revolution in military practice and technology that today’s conflicts are coming to signify.

The previous revolution, which affected all aspects of war without exception took place during and after World War II. This revolution produced new military hardware - nuclear weapons, guided weapons, ballistic and cruise missiles, radars, jet fighters and bombers, helicopters, pilotless aircraft and unmanned ground vehicles. It also changed the art of military operations and tactics. Air-defense operations, large-scale strategic troop deployments, carrier-based units, and combined combat units of ground forces, which combined the flexibility of motorized infantry with the mobility of tanks and the firepower of self-propelled artillery all appeared. All of these achievements and many others were made in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The human race is still using the fruits of this revolution, and is moving forward. But gradually the price of war is becoming prohibitive - production of modern military equipment, its upkeep, and qualified soldiers are becoming more and more expensive. Combined with the development of electronics and robots, this has created the prerequisites for a revolution in robotics.

The first remotely controlled military vehicles appeared in the 1930s, and were broadly used during the war. It is enough to recall American and German experiments with unmanned flying bombs, or Goliaths, the Nazi remote controlled demolition vehicles. The quantity of remote controlled equipment was growing until quantity changed into quality at the turn of the past century - now ground, air, and sea-based robots of all kinds are playing an increasing role in warfare.
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/robot-armies-another-military-revolution/

[mac2]

1. Keep them out of the rain.

[mike_c]

2. it's all fun and games until Skynet goes sentient....

[DavidDvorkin]

3. What could possibly go wrong?

[yurbud]

4. the only silver lining is the terminator will put Blackwater out of business.