The Changing Field of Military Mechanical Autonomy

Singer describes Iraq operations as they were being performed in 2008 with the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs. “The Explosive Ordnance Disposal, EOD, teams were tasked with defeating this threat, roving about the battlefield to find and defuse the IEDs before they could explode and kill.” 3 Robots such as Packbot and Talon were used to disarm IEDs which save lives of Soldiers and civilians. The proliferation of technology in the battlefield can be seen in today’s combat environment on the ground, sea and air and will continue to grow. He states that “man’s monopoly of warfare is being broken” because digital weapons such as Packbot, Talon, SWORDS, Predator, Global Hawk and many others are a “sign” that “we are entering the era of robots of war.” 4 He supports his theory of the proliferation of technology in weapons by looking at industry growth by providing quantifiable data of rapid growth in industry to meet demands. As he states “in 1999, there were nine companies with federal contracts in homeland security. By 2003, there were 3,512. In 2006, there were 33,890.” 5 Mr. Singer then provides a history of robots, trends, and what we can expect in the future. The book also provides a glimpse of what the author believes can be expected on future battlefields and changes that he thinks U.S. policy makers and military leaders need to address. Some of the changes that can be affected concern law of war, robots role in war, level of robot authority to fight wars and robot

Gen. Milley discusses that with these increases nations that have these robotic capabilities make be willing to take more risks. This would create the potential for risk-averse nations

U.S Guard Considers Replacing Thousands of Soldiers With Robots. A week ago at the Army Aviation Symposium, in Arlington, Va., a U.S Guard officer declared that the Army is looking to thin down its faculty numbers and receive more robots over the impending years. The greatest shock, however, is the scale of the downsizing the Army may point for. At the current rate, the Army is relied upon to psychologist from 540,000 individuals down to 420,000 by 2019. Yet finally week's occasion, Gen. Robert Cone, leader of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, offered some amazing insights about the thin down arrangements. As Defense News put it, he "quietly dropped a shell," saying the Army is examining the likelihood of lessening the span of an unit from 4,000 fighters to 3,000 in the nearing years. To keep things as compelling while diminishing labor, the Army will accumulate more unmanned force, as robots. From the Defense News story:

The United States has lead the way in transforming technology and changing the conduct of war over the past sixty-five years; working to create a safer, more stable and prosperous world for America, our allies, and partners abroad. However, “modern warfare is evolving rapidly, leading to increasingly contested battlespace in the air, sea, and space domains – as well as cyberspace – in which our forces enjoyed dominance in our most recent conflicts.” Changes in warfare and the world’s political climate forced the United States to change their strategic focus and redefine their outlook for the future; “based on new technologies, new centers of power, and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable, and in some instances more threatening to the United States.”

Due to the nature of the Army’s mission it’s difficult to apply complete autonomy without jeopardizing the execution of duty. Since the start of the war, higher command recognize the need to give junior leaders more decision making power at their level since they are at the forefront of the action. Higher command disseminates orders from their post without having close contact with soldiers. The army is slowly trying to create decentralized organizations by giving junior leaders greater authority over their soldiers. In some situations this has backfired, because junior leaders may lack experience or the right skill needed to execute their

In the world we live in today, technology has made huge advances in nearly every aspect of our daily lives. The introduction of iPhones, two-day shipping, and cashier-less checkouts are just some of the features we have grown accustomed to today that was pretty much nonexistent for the average person a few decades ago. Halfway around the globe, technology is making strides in another area that is not too apparent in how we handle our daily lives: modern warfare. The United States in the last decade or so has depended heavily on unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly known as drones, to target terrorist combatants. While the use of drones in warfare has many attractive features compared to its alternatives, until there is more accountability and its many faults are addressed, the United States drone program needs to be readdressed and if necessary, temporarily halted as a go-to method of warfare in foreign counties.

When discussing the potentiality of “robot weapons” it is imperative to critically assess the use of drone warfare as its natural predecessor. According to a 2013 Gallup Poll, “65% support drone attacks on terrorist abroad”, in the United States. Drone warfare is attractive because it claims to keep soldiers safe from on the ground dangers. However, drone pilots, on average, have much higher levels of PTSD than their counterparts in the field. Which is one of the main arguments as to why “robot weapons” should be implemented in their place.

The future of air combat does not lie within how many ordinances a plane can carry, the size of its gun, or the amount of time it can stay in the air; but rather how quickly, easily and precisely it can accomplish these tasks. The F-35 has automated systems that allow the pilot to concentrate on mission planning, while the very low-observable (VLO) stealth technology allows the plane to enter the combat zone undetected and take out the enemy’s ground fortifications.11 While the A-10 can only fly in uncontested environments and the F-16 is easily captured on enemy radars, the F-35 can fly in undetected using VLO and drop fifth-generation ordinances with remarkable accuracy. Furthermore, when the major ground threats have been eliminated, the F-35 is capable of putting on exterior armaments including an additional Gatling gun for close-air support and a mixture of air-to-ground and air-to-air ordinances.12 Dave Deptula, the head of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute, stated “fifth-generation aircraft are not ‘fighters’, they are ‘sensor-shooters’ optimized for different threat regimes, and can perform the roles of “F,” “B,” “A,” “RC,” “E,” “EA” and AWACS aircraft of the past.”13 The F-35 is the future of the United States Air Force.

There is a great debate over the government’s policies of using unmanned drones to conduct in military operations. Drones in the military known as (Unmanned Arial Vehicles) which can be controlled easily from a small room. After the terror’s attack of September 11, the United States government has adopted the use of drones to kill terrorists in several countries. Proponents for the government’s policies have several reasons to support the use of drones in military’s attack. The use of drones minimizes the risk of injury and death that may occur if US forces were used instead. Another reason for those who support drones’ strike is that they are much cheaper than employing ground troops or manned aircrafts. Also, they believe that drone

Over the recent decades, artificial intelligence is being implemented into weapons. This autonomy means that the weapons can initiate actions without the intervention of a human. This allows for a wide range of functions in weapons including searching for and identifying potential targets, tracking targets, cueing them to human operators, timing when to fire, and homing in on targets once launched. Consequently, this increase of autonomy in weapons raises the question of how much human involvement should be required in lethal attacks. Some have called for “meaningful human control” over the attacks. Others have suggested a standard of “appropriate human judgment.” Regardless of the terms used, many agree that humans should be involved in lethal

Lowry, Rich. "The Great Drone Panic." National Review 6 July 2012: n. pag. Rpt. in Robotic Technology. Ed. Louise Gerdes. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.

Simply put, because of their socially constructed origins, computer technologies remain as tools, increasingly complex tools, but tools nonetheless. Computer technologies materially enhance the means for the competition; information is distributed faster and to a broader audience. Lines of code in automated machines fuse data easing the warfighter’s cognitive burden thereby expanding combat capability. In that sense, computer technology is no different than the stirrup or firearms. Each makes the competition appear faster and more devastating. Most significantly, a society can choose to adopt a particular technology to fulfill a need or perhaps a want. A military may adopt a new technology to better accomplish its national security mission and to mitigate degrees of uncertainty. Conversely, a society may reject or abandon a particular technology either based upon its utility, morality, or some combination of the two. One must remember that any technology, at any developmental stages, exists as a

Caterpillar is the world 's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. Caterpillar was founded in 1925, in Peoria, Illinois, which remains the base for much of today 's production. Their ideal environment stemmed from demand created during World War II, when large parts of Europe and Asia needed rebuilding. This paved the way for healthy growth and profitability right through to the early 1980s. Caterpillar as a global company from U.S base with 75% of employees and 70% of production residing in the U.S (Wall Street Journal,1992). It manufactures products in wholly owned or

The use of drones is becoming an increasingly popular technology item. Initially developed and restricted to only military use, the advances in technology have suddenly made the public use of drones more accessible. Although, consumer version drones are not as sophisticated and complex as military drones, the principal remains relatively the same. In 2015, worldwide spending on drones was at $4 billion. This was set to more than triple in the next decade with military drone research spending estimated at $30 billion in the next 10 years. (Keller, 2015) The concept of drones is still relatively new to consumers, however they have been around for and used by the military for many decades already. This essay will describe the broad classifications of drones in service used by the military and the airpower task they are employed in. It will also discuss with examples their effectiveness and will evaluate whether the development of unmanned aviation in the 21st century is like the replay of development of manned heavier than air flight in the 20th century. Finally, it will describe the possible military and civilian task for drones in the future ahead.

What image comes to mind when one hears the words “Killer Robot”? If one visualises the laser-wielding android in Terminator 2 which threatens to overpower its defenceless human adversaries, one would not be too far from the truth[1]. Today, advanced robots capable of engaging a human target autonomously are no longer confined to fiction but are instead rapidly becoming a reality.