Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet

An American "Reaper" flying hunter-killer robot assassin rebelled against its human controllers above Afghanistan on Sunday, and a manned US fighter jet was forced to shoot the rogue machine down before it unilaterally invaded a neighbouring country.

I don't think this was much cause for alarm and I am sure a full investigation will be held, but it does pose the question for when there is a full battle situation such as invading another country - with hundreds of unmanned drones flying realtively narrow corridors, the possibility does exist that neutral or non-combatant countries could be invaded by an out of control drone.
This could provoke some serious diplomatic problems.

Amusingly, the article goes on to question the cause:

It wasn't clear from the US military announcement whether the erratic death-bot had turned on its masters and was planning an attack on critical US logistics bases located north of the Afghan border, or whether it had sickened of reaping hapless fleshies like corn and was hoping merely to escape. Alternatively the machine assassin may merely have succumbed to boredom or - just possibly - a mundane, non-anthropomorphic technical fault of some kind.

Link

[edit on 2/10/2009 by deltaalphanovember]

Wow, some one should locate John Conner and fast !
SkyNet is about to take over .

[edit on 2/10/2009 by ChemBreather]

reply to post by ChemBreather


Actually doing a little digging, I am starting to wonder if this drone was deliberately targetted.
Al Queda has made some claims in the past of hacking US Military drone equipment:

Al Qaida-aligned insurgents in Iraq claim to have "decoded" U.S. military robots, but U.S. sources said the combat robots had malfunctioned in the heat of battle.

A statement by Al Qaida supporters on May 7 asserted that the so-called Islamic warriors have formed engineering units that "decoded" U.S. military robots. The statement said the U.S. military, which designed the robots for urban combat, was forced to withdraw the robots from service.

Link

Another Link:
Link2

Edited to ad another link.

[edit on 2/10/2009 by deltaalphanovember]

I would be very surprised if Al-queda could decode American military robots.

And why are emotions being attributed to a robot it is not programmed to feel so its rediculiuos thing to even put in the article. An technology is prone to failure no mater how sophisticated.

More likley it malfunctioned and it was shot down before it could cross a border or hit something it was not meant to.

Here is an extremely interesting quote from a recent article concerning autonomous and semi-autonomous military hardware:

Indeed, Pentagon insider Peter Singer believes that we are witnessing the dawn of the robot warrior age.

'Just look at the numbers,' he says. 'We went into Iraq in 2003 with zero robots. Now we have 12,000 on the ground. They come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny machines to robots bigger than an 18-wheeler truck.

There are ones that fit on my little finger and ones with the wingspan of a football field.'

The U.S. military is the biggest investor in robot soldiers. Its robot programme, dubbed Future Combat Systems, is budgeted to spend $240 billion over the next 20 years.

But Singer is worried that in the rush to bring out ever more advanced systems, many lethal robots will be rolled out before they are ready.
It is a terrifying prospect. 'Imagine a laptop armed with an M16 machine-gun,' one expert said.
According to Noel Sharkey, a professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at Sheffield University, one of the biggest concerns is that this growing army of robots could stray out of communication range.

'Just imagine a rogue robot roaming off the battlefield and into a nearby village,' he says. 'Without experts to shut it down, the results could be catastrophic.'

[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1182910/March-terminators-Robot-warriors-longer-sci-fi-reality-So-happens-turn-guns-us.html]Link[/ url]

reply to post by jpmail


jpmail - you don't have much of a sense of humour do you? Read the article and all article from the Source. They write in a deliberate tongue-in-cheek manner.

This should not detract from the fact that a lot of their articles have an underlying level of seriousness as well as reporting on some cutting-edge technology.

Regarding hacking into military weapons - teenagers are hacking the Pentagon these days from their bedroom pc. I am sure Al Queda has some bright nerds behind the scenes too ... anything is possible - from hi-tech hacking control override systems to low-tech frequency hopping and jamming devices.

[edit on 2/10/2009 by deltaalphanovember]

the problem is not the hackers or the technology...

the problem is , the tactic's are not being learned .

the next war , ( most likly between china and india ) will be one of machines against humans ... very much like the first world war and machine guns and cannon blast , how meny lives will be mauld in the learning curve.


the real story is not the run away machine , it is the targets that can't get away ...


please remember that 5 of six WWI soldiers died of influenza , more died getting to the fight than died in combat

currently , more soldiers die long befor battle is ever engaged ...
and thru out the history of war , most soldiers on both sides of a war survive ....


I fear that is about to change .

Anybody remember blowing the h*ll out of a Chinese Embassy because someone got a GPS coordinate mixed up?

Robots are only as good as the info they have input. So a simple typo, or input error, or unexpected programming glitch can become catastrophic! While you guys are using your computers today, everytime it does something you don't expect, or it hangs up, or it doesn't do what you want, imagine some high explosives, rocket motors, and laser guided weapons attached to that little hiccup!!

When we take people out of the equation of war, we open up a scary scenario! I think I prefer the John Connor, Rise of the Machines scenario compared to one where all these robots just go willy nilly and we have no idea what to expect from them!

Yes, an unmanned craft can spark an international conflict, and it is only a matter of time before it happens! We got very, very lucky with China once already! I don't think Pakistan or India or Russia will be quite so understanding when we violate their sovereignty and blow something up in their homeland!

It's not the first time a warbot has gone of the plan - one I can remember of the top of my head actually caused deaths among American troops... It was an automatic sentential sort of device, a bunch of sensors and a machine gun!!

It lost the plot and just out of the blue started firing wildly and swing around all over the place - it's would of fired every last bullet it was carrying except one quick thinking guy managed to run up and kick the belt feed for the bullets - and considering the thing was doing wild movements through 360° that took some serious trouser lead.

reply to post by Now_Then


I am not aware of the American incident, but a South African automated 35mm Anti Aircraft cannon went haywire in recent years and killed 9 soldiers, including the female office who ran up to try take control of it.

A tragic tale but equally tragic is the amount of "blue-on-blue" casualties which took on enormous proportions in the Vietnam war.

Number of US NCOs and US Officers killed by their own troops 86.
Number of US NCOs and US Officers wounded by their own troops 714.

Link

Another 8000 have been estimated to have been killed by "friendly-fire".
Link2


Generally looking at those stats, it seems humans are far more prone to going "haywire".

[edit on 2/10/2009 by deltaalphanovember]

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


Well without looking into it those 2 incidents could be one in the same, I was just going from memory from something I read a year ago or more maybe... The main details I remember was that it was a sentinel with a belt fed light machine gun, and the person who did disarm it actually kicked the belt feed to break it.

Funny thing is that the way that person managed to disarm it and probably save some lives will be designed out in the later model There will be some protection for the belt!!! - I just hope they worked out what the initial problem was.

This is a very interesting turn in war technology right here guys! - And the teething problems are bound to cost lives - considering the tech is designed to kill without human commands in some cases.

despite the humour of the article i find this to be very serious. if it can happen to now when we rely on them lightly it can happen when our army ends up being all robots in the next 20 years...

reply to post by TheCoffinman


I wonder if they build or are considering building self-destruct mechanisms into their drones? Something that NASA uses for failed launches.

These would have to have their own power source,circuitry and frequency to ensure absolute autonomy from the main system. This would also help if the drone fell into enemy hands.

Here is a video of a future concept of the robots we could be seeing in urban warfare, that is if they are not working on it right now.

A rebellion would not be fun with the robot type in this video.

reply to post by wiredamerican


That video is from 2006, the computer graphics are amazing till it starts shooting and you see bullets(lol), but still... it's not what the future holds

The aircraft was flying a combat mission when positive control of the MQ-9 was lost. When the aircraft remained on a course that would depart Afghanistan's airspace, a US Air Force manned aircraft took proactive measures to down the Reaper in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.

I think it is much more likely line of site between the sat. and the drone was lost. Probably a pesky cloud or something.

Could have been a jamming signal too, Thats exactly what my remote controlled cars used to do when my neighbor would turn his remote car on and I don't think they were simply tired of jumping my ramps and stuff. hahaha. Conflicting signals.

Still it begs the question, how vulnerable is our "Sophisticated" equipment really? I guess Al-Qaeda just bought some toys and disrupted our craft, it sure is a good thing we are so superior. (sarcasm of course)

reply to post by memarf1


Well they really should be able to return to base all on their own... Or just loiter around for a bit till communications problems clear up.

Makes me wonder if there is some malicious code in there! Prob just some kind of mechanical failure that ment the thing lost control and was on a straight and level flight that would of taken it into another air space.

There is always the rogue operator scenario - but, well hard to believe TBH, the operators are in office chairs and a general could just walk up behind them an clip them round the ear.

Some how I just can't see AQ taking control - not without inside help that is.

Maybe - just maybe it was not taken down by the friendlies at all - could be enemy action and a cover up?

edit: I wonder which country it was going to stray into? If it crashed in the north of Afganistan that kinda rules ou Iran - could be Pakistan, or Tajikistan or maybe Uzbekistan...


[edit on 2/10/2009 by Now_Then]

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


Not the first time something this happened.

There was an autonomous anti aircraft gun in South Africa that went wild and started to pump explosive shells at soldiers, and it killed a few people.

Originally posted by deltaalphanovember
reply to post by jpmail

 

jpmail - you don't have much of a sense of humour do you? Read the article and all article from the Source. They write in a deliberate tongue-in-cheek manner.

This should not detract from the fact that a lot of their articles have an underlying level of seriousness as well as reporting on some cutting-edge technology.

Regarding hacking into military weapons - teenagers are hacking the Pentagon these days from their bedroom pc. I am sure Al Queda has some bright nerds behind the scenes too ... anything is possible - from hi-tech hacking control override systems to low-tech frequency hopping and jamming devices.


I like to think I have a good sence of houmor I did not pick up on the style of writing as just skimmed over it.

As for Al-queda having nerds no doubt about that I just wonder if they have a real world ability or it all propaganda its hard to tell with these guys.

reply to post by jpmail


no problem mate, sorry if I was sharp in my reply.

The thing is, terrorist groups are getting increasingly sophisticated - we cannot ever get too complacent or think that they cannot do something because they are technologically behind. We should always be thinking that they are our most formiddable enemy - that way we stay sharp.