The robots are coming! In 2024, no week has passed without eye-catching headlines stating that “the robot wars have […] begun” as part of “a new revolution of warfare.” As robots are increasingly integrated into society, they are also being introduced into the military. In the land domain, military robots are not necessarily humanoids, a la iRobot, but are often uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs). Looking closely, it becomes clear that we are quite far from the controversial notion of ‘fully autonomous’ robot warfare. High levels of autonomy likely won’t be achieved in UGVs in the mid-term, as the features that enable it are, ironically, its main weakness.
Author: Liska Suckau
Liska Suckau ist Researcher in der Forschungsgruppe Emerging Disruptive Technologies des Clusters Natur- und Technikwissenschaftliche Rüstungskontrollforschung (CNTR) und im Programmbereich Internationale Sicherheit. Ihre Forschungsinteressen sind Kriegs- und Friedensforschung, insbesondere neue Technologien in der Kriegsführung, militärische Innovation, kritische Militärstudien, Rüstungskontrolle und Gender. // Liska Suckau is a Researcher in the Research Group Emerging Disruptive Technologies at CNTR and the Research Department International Security. Her research interests are war and peace research, in particular new technologies in warfare, military innovation, critical military studies, arms control and gender.