UK’s Head of Armed Forces, General Sir Nick Carter recently suggested the possibilities of a robot army in the country by 2030s during his interview with Sky News. He said that he believes robots and robot soldiers may amount for up to a quarter of the British Army by the 2030s.
UK May Invest Significantly In Robotic Warfare
However, he was also quick to clarify that he wasn’t setting any firm targets for the country’s defense forces but increasing number of robots in the army do remain a likely possibility. United Kingdom is also expected to allocate more money for robotic warfare in its postponed five-year defense review. Army General Carter was also seen urging the UK government to move forward with the review during his interview. Britain’s leading newspaper, The Guardian further added in its report on the matter that these robotic recruits could also help the nation fill in gaps in its requisite defense positions. Notably, Britain is already facing major challenges in meeting its recruitment targets. It currently has only 73,870 trained soldiers much below the requisite 82,050 capacity. DRDO PROVIDES SURVEILLANCE “BHARAT DRONE” FOR INDIA-CHINA BORDER UK Army General added that robots can potentially fill in these gaps and may even help the country’s army to expand further by coming down on sole dependency on human soldiers. However, there seems to be a larger consensus against the possibilities of autonomous killer robots in the country. While it would be too early to predict with certainty what tasks robots in the army would particularly perform; they can prove to be useful to move cargo trucks, scouts and manage unarmed machinery. It would also leave the forces with a larger strength of human soldiers to focus on the combats. Thus, possibilities of robotic combats between themselves remain an unlikely possibility in the near future. SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE – THE COVETED INDIAN ARMY UNIT YOU SHOULD KNOW Notably, during the interview Sir Nick Carter reportedly also warned about the risks of UK being dragged into a deadly future war in case of escalations and consequent miscalculation. He noted that the world was “a very uncertain and anxious place”. He further opined, “We have to remember that history might not repeat itself but it has a rhythm and if you look back at the last century, before both world wars, I think it was unarguable that there was escalation which led to the miscalculation which ultimately led to war at a scale we would hopefully never see again. I’m saying it’s a risk and we need to be conscious of those risks.” ALSO READ: LENOVO LAUNCHES FIRST MORNING STAR INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
