According to the command of the British army, by 2030 the number of their ground forces will be 120,000 conventional "bayonets", of which 30,000 (25%) will be combat robots - autonomous and remotely controlled.
General Nick Carter, a senior military official, said the main obstacle to this is insufficient funding. For this reason, research in the field of military robotics was suspended in October.
The use of combat robots, programmed to make quick decisions and associated with the destruction of the enemy's manpower, also has an ethical background. However, development and deployment are two different things. The British military, together with civilian specialists, have been developing small autonomous and remotely controlled combat systems for many years.
An example of this is the i9 drone, a small operator-controlled drone equipped with two shotguns. Its main task is to destroy the enemy entrenched in the building. Having penetrated the building, the drone detects it, enters into combat contact and destroys it before the enemy gunner can open fire on the assault group.
It is too early to talk about the full-scale equipping of the British army with combat robots - in fact, we are talking about the creation of their separate prototypes. However, before they become full participants in military conflicts, world leaders must agree on ethical rules for their use. Otherwise, the AI programmed to eliminate living people can do a lot of trouble.
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