The war in Ukraine has become the largest testing ground forartificial intelligence-powered autonomous and uncrewed vehicles in history.
This article discusses the killer robot technology being used by both sides in Russias war in Ukraine.
Our main takeaway is that the killer part of killer robots doesnt apply here.
Read on to find out why.
Its important, however, to mention that this is not a war being fought by machines.
Uncrewed vehicles and autonomous vehicles arent necessarily the same thing.
Perhaps most importantly, many of these vehicles have never been tested in combat.
There are no killer robots in warfare.
Thats a catch-all term used to describe military vehicles both autonomous and uncrewed.
To put it simply: militaries have better things to do with their robots than just sending fire downrange.
That doesnt mean they wont be tested that way, theres alreadyevidence thats happened.
However, weve seen all that before.
The use of killer robots in warfare is old hat now.
Whats different in this war is the proliferation of UAVs and UGVs in combat support roles.
Weve seen drones and autonomous land vehicles in war before, but never at this scale.
A developmental crucible
Developing wartime technology is a tricky gambit.
In the Vietnam war, we saw a prime example of this paradigm inthe debut of the M-16 rifle.
It was supposed to replace the trusty old M-14.
A lot of soldiers died as a result.
TNW spoke with Alex Stronell, a Land Platforms Analyst and UGV lead atJanes, the defense intelligence provider.
For example, an awful lot of attention has been paid inside and outside of Russia to theUran-9… Thats exceptional when you consider that the nations arsenal is mostly lend-leased from other countries.
According to Stronell, these vehicles will not be armed.
Theyre equipped for casualty evacuation, and for finding and removing landmines and similar devices.
The THeMIS, however, is outfitted with Milrems Intelligence Function Kit, which includes the follow me ability.
This means that it would make for an excellent battle mule to haul ammo and other gear.
Scrap Metal Auto-Turret (RaspberryPi Auto-Tracking Airsoft Sentry?!)
Currently, the war in Ukraine is teaching us that autonomous vehicles are useful in support roles.
The actual military need for killer robots is likely much lower than the average civilian might expect.
However, thats something that will surely change as AI technology matures.
