Countries Building Military Robots

Many different countries are developing military robots and if there are wars in the future the battlefield might be completely robotic someday. This doesn’t mean humans won’t be in danger, because as one side or the other breaks through the next target is us. Some of these countries are not the ones you would expect.

One of the last countries one would think of as having robotic technology is Iran and yet if we are thinking that we are completely uninformed. Iran is developing several different types of robots. One is named the Nazir robot car. It is believed this car is capable of carrying two missiles. Some military experts think the car might have some sort of smoke release device to obscure the car from the enemy’s view. This technology was used for centuries by ships. The car is said not to be autonomous, but steered by remote operators. One of the things I don’t understand is if smoke is hiding the car and coming out from the front how do the remote operators see where the car is going? An Iranian General has promised there will soon be robot soldiers in the Iranian army. The soldiers seem to be nothing special, but are created from technology we have had for years. A small base with tractor treads make them mobile with small arms weapons mounted on the carriage above. The unit would be remote controlled. The United States has had this basically simple technology for years and the program is called MAARS which is short for Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System. I guess we can add robot drones to the list since almost every country is developing them and we have to remember the Iranians captured one of our drones intact.

Russia has their military robotic program in high gear. They are going to display many of their military robots at the Army-2015 exhibition. Some of the robots are already in use and other have just been designed. One robot has been around for a while and is named the Uranus-6. It is a mine sweeper and has already been used in Chechnya. It has the look of a bulldozer. Some of the other robotic offerings are unmanned boats, drones and submarines. The Russians have an intense robotic program which calls for robots to be issued to the army and fleet for ten years.Β  If the Russian aircraft industry is any indication the Russians should be creating many formidable robots in the future.

Perhaps the country which has the greatest need for military robots today is South Korea. They need them to guard the demilitarized zone between themselves and North Korea. The worry is the starving North Koreans might invade, because they feel they have nothing to lose. In 2006 the South Koreans announced they were placing an all-weather 5.56 mm robotic machine gun with optional grenade launcher on guard over the DMZ. It can track multiple targets and used IR and visible light cameras and is run remotely by humans. The robot also contains a speaker and microphone. This allows the operator to ask for a password. South Korea has developed drones, but so has North Korea. The North Korean drones have been downplayed by those who have seen them and have been described as a model plane with a camera. In a DARPA agency challenge in California, South Korean robots took the first prize. DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The U.S. took the second and third prizes. The South Korean robot was the first in the contest of humanoid robots to complete all its tasks.

India has decided military robots are the wave of the future. The country’s military states there will be a robot army within the next ten years. The army states its robots will conduct one half of all operations by that time. It is claimed India has sixteen military robot development programs currently active. Some of the robots are typical of what other countries are developing, that is a small tractor base with a weapons platform. One robot is on the small side and was created to destroy or unarm unexploded devices. It is small enough to enter into planes and through the doors of a building. It is remotely controlled. India claims it will be on an equal standing with the robot forces of the United States by 2020. They expect to have a full spectrum of robots which will range from micro robots to tank sized robots. Beside drones they will have robot boats, ships and subs. Daksh is India’s first robot soldier and it is of a traditional small tracked remote controlled robot. India is also discussing building robots which will be autonomous and depending on their programs they will decide who to fight and when to fire.

Poland has several companies creating military robots. Polish robots are being supplied to the German army and a robotic competition, which was usually held in Germany, had been moved to Poland in 2014. Many Polish robots are included in Western programs. Last year many different Polish robots were tested in various military situations, some of which imitated real situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tasks included transportation of cargo, remote searches, destruction or unarming of explosives, rescuing the wounded on a battlefield and reconnaissance during day and nighttime hours, to name a few.

It has become obvious most of the countries which are capable of building robots have decided to create military robots. Some of the countries I mentioned were not really known for military robot development so this may be a surprise to some. There are far more than I have wrote about here. I didn’t even mention some of the leading countries in military robots such as the United State, Japan, China and others. There is going to be a time when robots will be appearing everywhere and their use might just spread to police. I say this because the military is developing robots to use in urban settings and one has to think that at some time in the future someone will decide to make them available to police. Once this happens, I can’t help but feel this is the end for liberty in this country, especially if they become autonomous.