Robots replace trigger fingers in
Iraq By David Isenberg
WASHINGTON - Every war is a test of many
things: will, resolve, heroism and sacrifice, for
example. But they are also testing grounds for
material things, and technology in particular.
From the first rocks and flints, to spears and
swords, gunpowder, chemical, biological and
nuclear weapons, every war has served to allow
improvements to military systems and weapons.
The United States in particular has relied
on its ability to leverage technology on the
battlefield, both because of its advanced
scientific and technology
base as well as a way to compensate for having
smaller forces than some of its past opponents,
especially during the Cold War standoff with the
Soviet Union.
Iraq is no different. In
fact, given the emphasis on producing a high-tech
digital force as party of former US secretary of
defense Donald Rumsfeld's "force transformation"
effort, technology has assumed a leading role in
Iraq. Whether trying to counter improvised
explosive devices (IED), proving mine-resistant
vehicles, unmanned air vehicles like the Predator
that can fire missiles and satellite-guided joint
directed attack munitions, or the deployment of
the Stryker, a new lightweight infantry carrier
that can perform like a mini-tank but at higher
speeds, advanced technological systems have been
present in Iraq from the very beginning of the
invasion.
There is no better example of
this than the use of robots in Iraq. The US
government will spend about US$1.7 billion on
ground-based military robots between fiscal 2006
and 2012, according to the National Center for
Defense Robotics, a congressionally funded
consortium of 160 companies.
The US
military, in fact, has deployed thousands of
robotic systems to Iraq and Afghanistan. One of
them is the 19-kilogram PackBot robot,
manufactured by the IRobot Corp, the same company
that produces the Roomba, the vacuum-cleaning
robot. The PackBot rides on tracks like a
miniature tank. It can climb stairs, penetrate
caves, and peek around corners with video eyes so
that troops can reconnoiter while avoiding the
enemy as well as booby traps. The PackBot has also
been deployed in Afghanistan.
The PackBot,
though, is hardly the only system being used to
counter the IED threat. In 2004, the Pentagon
began shipping unmanned robots into Iraq in
February, in response to an urgent requirement for
a standoff capability to neutralize explosives
along convoy routes in Iraq - namely rudimentary
IEDs, which were deemed the No 1 killer in the
region at the time. The deployed unmanned ground
vehicles include about 10 Matildas, 22 iRobots
(Packbots), 58 Vanguards, 43 Talons and 20
Mini-Andros systems. Mesa-Robotics builds the
Matilda, Canada-based EOD Performance builds the
Vanguard, Foster-Miller the Talon, and Northrop
Grumman the Mini-Andros.
The deployed
robots are designed to neutralize explosives once
they are detected. Each of the systems is equipped
with a "disrupter" device capable of physically
disabling a threat with a burst of air or water.
However, those robots were fielded as part
of a stopgap measure while the military continues
with a formal acquisition plan for the Man
Transportable Robotic System. That consists
primarily of an operator control unit and a
tele-operated vehicle. The system components will
be small and light enough to be carried as a
single load by a two-person team for 500 meters
over semi-rugged terrain. The primary mission is
reconnaissance, and the system will be enhanced to
perform other explosive-ordnance tasks.
Another robot in use in Iraq is the
backpackable Dragon Runner "throwbot". It was
first deployed by the US marines in Iraq in 2004.
The four-wheeled device is only a little more than
30 centimeters long and not quite 30cm wide and
weighs 4kg. It can be thrown over walls, out a
three-story window or up a flight of stairs; the
flat, 12.5cm-high machine can operate whichever
way it lands.
This month's issue of
National Defense magazine reports that the US Army
has quietly introduced a rifle-toting robot into
Iraq. So far three of the Special Weapons
Observation Remote Reconnaissance Direct Action
System (SWORDS) have been deployed. The SWORDS is
armed with an M249 rifle and is remotely
controlled by a soldier through a terminal. There
are no reports of the SWORDS being used in actual
combat yet, however.
What all these
systems have in common is that they are not truly
autonomous. They all have a human operator
somewhere in the loop. But that may be changing
soon. An article in the August 18 Guardian noted
that we are headed toward a brave new
Terminator-like world where robots decide
whom, where and when to kill. The US Congress has
set a goal of having one-third of ground combat
vehicles unmanned by 2015.
This raises
complex and frightening issues. Consider that the
international Law of Armed Conflict dictates that
unmanned systems cannot fire their weapons without
a human operator in the loop. But as new
generations of armed robots are built and
deployed, pressure will inevitably increase to
automate the process of selecting - and destroying
- targets.
If that sounds alarmist, one
should note that in 2002 a new legal
interpretation was proposed within the US military
to deal with the issue of removing humans from the
trigger-end of the killing process.
This
legal theory proposed by John S Canning, chief
engineer at the US Naval Surface Warfare Center,
called for programming all armed robotic vehicles
to aim only at weapons, not humans. For example,
an autonomous vehicle spots an insurgent with an
AK-47. The robotic vehicle is authorized to
destroy the AK-47. If the human is killed in the
process, that's what's called "collateral damage".
David Isenberg is a senior
analyst with the British American Security
Information Council. He is also a member of the
Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, an
adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute,
contributor to the Straus Military Reform Project,
a research fellow at the Independent Institute,
and a US Navy veteran. The views expressed are his
own.
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