statism watch

Flashback: Pentagon exploring robot killers that can fire on their own | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that ‘won’t commit war crimes’ | Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | Pentagon Wants Packs Of Robots To Detect “Non-cooperative Humans” | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain

Bernd Debusmann, Reuters
April 22, 2009

The aerial Hundred Killer from The Terminator – now closer to fact than fiction

WASHINGTON – They have no fear, they never tire, they are not upset when the soldier next to them gets blown to pieces. Their morale doesn’t suffer by having to do, again and again, the jobs known in the military as the Three Ds – dull, dirty and dangerous.

They are military robots and their rapidly increasing numbers and growing sophistication may herald the end of thousands of years of human monopoly on fighting war. “Science fiction is moving to the battlefield. The future is upon us,” as Brookings scholar Peter Singer put it to a conference of experts at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania this month.

Singer just published Wired For War – the Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, a book that traces the rise of the machines and predicts that in future wars they will not only play greater roles in executing missions but also in planning them.

Numbers reflect the explosive growth of robotic systems. The U.S. forces that stormed into Iraq in 2003 had no robots on the ground. There were none in Afghanistan either. Now those two wars are fought with the help of an estimated 12,000 ground-based robots and 7,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the technical term for drone, or robotic aircraft.

Ground-based robots in Iraq have saved hundreds of lives in Iraq, defusing improvised explosive devices, which account for more than 40 percent of U.S. casualties. The first armed robot was deployed in Iraq in 2007 and it is as lethal as its acronym is long: Special Weapons Observation Remote Reconnaissance Direct Action System (SWORDS). Its mounted M249 machinegun can hit a target more than 3,000 feet away with pin-point precision.

From the air, the best-known UAV, the Predator, has killed dozens of insurgent leaders – as well as scores of civilians whose death has prompted protests both from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Predators are flown by operators sitting in front of television monitors in cubicles at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, 8,000 miles from Afghanistan and Taliban sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan. The cubicle pilots in Nevada run no physical risks whatever, a novelty for men engaged in war.

Technology runs ahead of ethics

Reducing risk, and casualties, is at the heart of the drive for more and better robots. Ultimately, that means “fully autonomous engagement without human intervention,” according to an Army communication to robot designers. In other words, computer programs, not a remote human operator, would decide when to open fire. What worries some experts is that technology is running ahead of deliberations of ethical and legal questions.

Robotics research and development in the U.S. received a big push from Congress in 2001, when it set two ambitious goals: by 2010, a third of the country’s long-range attack aircraft should be unmanned; and by 2015 one third of America’s ground combat vehicles. Neither goal is likely to be met but the deadline pushed non-technological considerations to the sidelines.

A recent study prepared for the Office of Naval Research by a team from the California Polytechnic State University said that robot ethics had not received the attention it deserved because of a “rush to market” mentality and the “common misconception” that robots will do only what they have been programmed to do.

“Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to the time when computers were simpler and their programs could be written and understood by a single person,” the study says. “Now programs with millions of lines of code are written by teams of programmers, none of whom knows the entire program; hence, no individual can predict the effect of a given command with absolute certainty since portions of programs may interact in unexpected, untested ways.”

That’s what might have happened during an exercise in South Africa in 2007, when a robot anti-aircraft gun sprayed hundreds of rounds of cannon shell around its position, killing nine soldiers and injuring 14.

Beyond isolated accidents, there are deeper problems that have yet to be solved. How do you get a robot to tell an insurgent from an innocent? Can you program the Laws of War and the Rules of Engagement into a robot? Can you imbue a robot with his country’s culture? If something goes wrong, resulting in the death of civilians, who will be held responsible?

The robot’s manufacturer? The designers? Software programmers? The commanding officer in whose unit the robot operates? Or the U.S. president who in some cases authorises attacks? (Barack Obama has given the green light to a string of Predator strikes into Pakistan).

While the United States has deployed more military robots – on land, in the air and at sea – than any other country, it is not alone in building them. More than 40 countries, including potential adversaries such as China, are working on robotics technology. Which leaves one to wonder how the ability to send large numbers of robots, and fewer soldiers, to war will affect political decisions on force versus diplomacy.

You need to be an optimist to think that political leaders will opt for negotiation over war once combat casualties come home not in flag-decked coffins but in packing crates destined for the robot repair shop.

Source | See Also under Militarization: Olympics-Cruise ships set for security in 2010 Games | RCMP ’sorry’ for errors in taser briefings | British Army to Police Medicine Hat During Urban Warfare Drills | Tamil civilians slaughtered as army shells ‘no-fire zone’ | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Urban warfare drills coming to Medicine Hat | Afghan front lines take mental toll on military and RCMP | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills | UK security whitepaper urges ‘end of privacy’ | All officers need Tasers, police associations say | Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Family furious after police raid East Vancouver home | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | Schools seek more police as crime drops | National Guard to invade Iowa town in door-to-door gun confiscation drill | U.S. set to launch Predator drones to monitor Manitoba border | Blackwater, mired in Iraq controversy, changes its name to ‘Xe’ | The Spy Factory: The New Thought Police | Tasers potentially lethal, RCMP commissioner tells MPs | Olympic security good for Canada, IOC head says | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Obama’s Change: Expanding the Power of the NSC and Shadow Government | Police presence in high schools makes the grade | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | Ban stun gun use on young people, Ontario child advocate urges | 24 star Keifer Sutherland opposed to torture, questions role of series in inspiring interrogations | Military to be out in force for Vancouver Olympics | Official: Blackwater contract for Iraq not renewed | RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | Tories seek extra $331-million for Afghan mission | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | New Legislation Authorizes FEMA Camps In U.S. | Obama eyes 3 more brigades for Afghanistan | Montreal may ban insults to police | U.S. study raises more questions about TASER safety | CSIS invites academic community into the fold | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Woman swats children on plane, charged with Terrorism | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | A decade later, Lastman proud he called in army | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Washington to be locked down for inauguration | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests | Military challenge: Make spy data more accessible | They hate us for our bombs | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | India signs new anti-terror laws in wake of Mumbai attack | Private firm may administer UK surveillance database | Toronto surveillance project to enter new phase pending review | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | Bush Signs New Unified Command Plan for ‘Synchronized Global Planning’ | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Some tested Tasers fire stronger current than company says: CBC/Radio-Canada probe | Pentagon earmarks 20,000 additional troops for American streets | Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that ‘won’t commit war crimes’ | Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | US Cops Tase 54 Year Old Woman For Sitting In Wrong Seat At Football Game | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Two More U.S. Military Units Assigned For Homeland Security | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | US military targets social nets | Homeland Security Assuming Broad Powers, Turning Swaths of U.S. into “Constitution-Free Zone” | Pentagon Wants Packs Of Robots To Detect “Non-cooperative Humans” | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’ | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US | Representatives Were Threatened With Martial Law In America Over Bailout Bill | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | Armed police officers heading to high schools | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | Suddenly, Denver ‘like a police state’ | NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Rounded up into torture camps: the ‘undesirables’ China doesn’t want you to see | Kids to Help Create Drones, ‘Fuzzy’ Line to Be Drawn between Military and Civil Spheres | News crew crashes Denver’s DNC ‘concentration camp’ | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain | Troops patrolling Italian cities alongside police | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Turning Toronto into a nanny state | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | UK Surveillance Commissioner calls for intelligence officers to work with municipalities | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Toronto artist seeks explanation for police raid | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TASER bracelets considered for airline passengers | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Youth Worker Subjected to Warrantless Raid on Secret Evidence | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Tasers pose risk to heart, MDs testify | Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | Massachusetts Police Get Black Uniforms to Instill Sense of ‘Fear’ | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | U.S. Northern Command, Canada Command establish new bilateral Civil Assistance Plan | Chicago study calls Taser’s safety claims into question | Tasers: the next generation | Austin police testing unmanned spy drones | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft | RCMP, U.S. Army block public forum on the Security and Prosperity Partnership | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities | Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty | Ontario Police Chiefs travel to Israel to study police tactics | Much of Britain sprayed in secret germ warfare tests

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:47 pm and is filed under accountability, militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.