US Army Studying Replacing Soldiers With Robots

Frankly, let's just all around the globe collectively skip the futile robots vs. robots stage of armed combat and go directly to pure cyber-warfare. May the least connected god-forbidden countries on this planet win!
 
martinbayer said:
Frankly, let's just all around the globe collectively skip the futile robots vs. robots stage of armed combat and go directly to pure cyber-warfare. May the least connected god-forbidden countries on this planet win!
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But you'll need those robots to occupy the now digitally scorched-earth landscape where nothing works.
 
I think largely or purely robotic forces are a lot closer than most think, they simply will not be anthropomorphic.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davida...obot-assault-force-just-won-its-first-battle/
The above seems more a publicity stunt than a useful combat action, but I think it illustrates what a modern robotic assault force might look like: predominantly medium sized wheel/track gun platforms supported by class 1/2 UAVs that are a mix of sensors and various sizes of loitering munition. Imagine all of these platforms organized under a common software agent, identifying targets and finding the best local in network shooter to engage them (as opposed to a strictly centralized AI attempting to stay connected with all platforms at once). Appropriately large target concentrations generate calls for fire from guided artillery rounds from further back. MOUT settings you might want to add something akin to the robotic dogs (already several in testing) to access tight spaces and engage at short range. Individual platforms have limited capabilities - heavy MG or autocanon, maybe an ATGW - but getting noticed by one draws others, or artillery, and shooting them up might immobilize them without disabling all of its ability to detect and network. Just taking one out of network draws attention.
 
Great idea. News headline from the future: Combat robots disabled by drones with paint cans.

Text: An attack by a formation of combat robots was halted when paint sprayed by drones obscured their vision plates.
 
I'm tired of seeing silly photos of clumsy humanoid robots climbing stairs, playing the piano, and waving to children. I'm tired of seeing mules and robotic dogs doing secondary military tasks... When are we going to see the real combat robots that everyone is hiding?
 

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Sure. No one knows. "They" also said internet thing would never catch on.
 
DARPA Net? Yeah, those people created it and released a version into the wild but only after they created a better, secret version. They can monitor your every keystroke.
 
I think to some extent it also depends on what mission qualifies as “combat” and most importantly what level of automation and/or reuse defines “robot”. Presumably single use weapons do not count, anything unmanned with a lot of human intervention is not sufficiently automated, and unarmed reconnaissance is not combat even when you are shot. Otherwise there would be a number of platforms that could be said to be robotic.

Truly automated systems that need little to no human input will likely largely be UUVs and UAVs initially, and probably have limited mission sets at first. But we are already seeing software directed swarming UAVs with sensor and weapons variants being tested by the U.S. Army as part of LE. The IDF has also deployed smart FPV types that map building interiors and optionally command detonate.
 

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