Faced with the Chinese threat to Taiwan, the American army intends to quickly equip itself with a massive army consisting of tens of thousands of killer robots and autonomous drones.
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Russia remains an acute threat to the US military, but China represents a primary challenge to military capabilities. Especially in view of the mass impact of the Chinese army, the US now believes that rearmament is necessary. To achieve this, the military expects to create a massive army of autonomous robots.
The project is called Replicator. This involves working with defense and technology manufacturers to produce large quantities of autonomous weapon systems at a reasonable price. They would be used in all branches of the armed forces. Russia’s war in Ukraine demonstrated that the technology is operational and relevant in combat. Therefore, drones and live ammunition are widely used. Naval drones were also used in attacks on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
The era of war robots is approaching
As evidence of the United States’ interest in these weapons systems, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks stated in a speech that several thousand systems would come onto the market within 18 to 24 months. Autonomous, i.e. killer robots. With this armada, the USA is relying on the psychological effect of such an army to deter China from attacking Taiwan. There still remains the ethical issue associated with the use of these fully autonomous, AI-controlled killer robots.
For the Deputy Secretary of Defense, these systems always require formal authorization from a human to attack and destroy their target. The United States is not the only one relying on this type of weapon. This is particularly true in Turkey, Israel, Australia and even Libya.