Pentagon To Send Robot Soldiers to Iraq

conJunk points out this AP story carried by Salon (also covered by various sources linked from Google News) "about the Pentagon's plan to send robot soldiers to Iraq in March or April. The program, Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, uses Foster-Miller TALON robots, and is said to be "years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp." If it's successful, maybe our men and women in uniform will have to team up with the United Auto Workers to fight the robo-threat to their jobs." Note that (whatever other considerations you might have about such deployment), the Rules of Robotics that some readers have linked to don't really apply to remote-controlled drones, which is what these are.

Comments

Re:obligatory.

[Hobadee]

Wait a minute here, lemme get this straight. We have a redneck buffoon as our commander in chief, which means he's the one controlling the robots with guns!?

Excuse me while I scream in terror and flee to another galaxy.

Re:obligatory war crime comment

[shanen]

I know you're trying to be funny (and get first post), but there's nothing funny in this topic. We already have enough trouble with war crimes committed by human beings who ought to know better. At least "they ought to know better" is the theory.

My initial reaction is that the Geneva Conventions will need to be re-evaluated in light of this technology, and I'd certainly think that the use of combat robots resulting in civilian deaths has to be some kind of war crime. Unfortunately, that would also make them pretty much useless for a situation like Iraq, where the civilians are so thoroughly mixed in with the "enemy".

I don't see any way to work around it. For example, let's say they define the rules of engagement such that the robot cannot use deadly force until it is attacked. In that case, the insurgents will either attack in a way so that it looks like civilians did it, or they will only attack after they are assure they have sufficient force to destroy the robot--at which point it will be too late for the robot to do anything.

Even worse, if the use of such robots becomes widespread, then ultimate victory will belong to the country with the manufacturing capacity. China.

Then consider the possibilities for hacking the robots, either on the battlefield or with secret back doors installed in advance... Madness. Sheer madness.

Then again, look at who's in charge of the Pentagon.