Robotic and Autonomous Weapons

I would be interested to hear your views on robotic and autonomous weapons of the future.

In the present global atmosphere, and with the guerilla-style wars we're being forced to fight, there's not much question that robotic and autonomous weapons could save a lot of lives and provide an upper hand against terrorists who hide among civilians, only to pounce at a strategic moment and kill some of our men and women of the forces.

What kinds of robotic or autonomous weapons do you think we will/should develop. Which companies presently have contracts with the Government to forge ahead in these fields?

The first autonomous vehicle contest just happened, what, six months ago? Granted, none of the vehicles finished the race, but it's a start.

And on a side-note... has anybody seen the article about the autonomous scout contest that's either going on, or is going to happen soon? I remember reading something, somewhere (I wish I could find it), about a contest where a 100% autonomous scout would FLY to a building two miles away, enter the building, identify a subject, and return to base without being detected and without any human input. Anybody know about this?

Dragon Runner is a small, front-wheel steer, man-portable mobile ground sensor designed to increase situational awareness. It will give tactical marine units the capability to see round the corner in an urban envirorment. Dragon Runner is part of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab's project RSTA, an effort to develop a reconnaissance, surveliance and target acquistion network of sensors that portrays a picture of battlespace,
enabling enhanced situational awareness for small unit leaders.

I think this system will help to save lives by helping units see around the corner in urban enviorments.

globalsecurity.org

[edit on 16-11-2004 by blue cell]