Small Gun Toting Drones a Reality (1 Viewer)

[msommer]

US firm reveals gun-toting drone that can fire in mid-air

A US technology firm has developed a drone that is able to aim and fire at enemies while flying in mid-air.

The Tikad drone, developed by Duke Robotics, is armed with a machine-gun and a grenade launcher.

The gun can be fired only by remote control, and is designed to reduce military casualties by cutting the number of ground troops required.

But campaigners warn that in the wrong hands, it will make it easier to kill innocent people.

The Tikad drone, available for private sale at an undisclosed price, has won a security innovation award from the US Department of Defense, and there is interest from several military forces around the world, including Israel, reports Defense One.

According to the firm's website, two of the three co-founders of Duke Robotics worked for the Israel Defense Forces and the third at Israel Aerospace Industries.

"As a former Special Mission Unit commander, I have been in the battlefield for many years," said CEO Raziel Atuar.

"Over the last few years, we have seen how the needs of our troops in our battlefield have changed."

However, robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey expressed concern that gun-toting drones could make it easier to kill innocent people.

"Big military drones traditionally have to fly thousands of feet overhead to get to targets, but these smaller drones could easily fly down the street to apply violent force," he told the BBC.

"This is my biggest worry since there have been many legal cases of human-rights violations using the large fixed-wing drones, and these could potentially result in many more."

For the past decade, Prof Sharkey has been campaigning against killer robots, which are fully autonomous, computer-powered weapons that would be able to track and select targets without human supervision.

Together with the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of over 60 international NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Nobel Women's Initiative, Sharkey has been lobbying the United Nations to ban autonomous weapons.

However, the machine-gun on board the Duke Robotics device still has to be controlled remotely by a human operator.

According to Prof Sharkey, some US military officials are concerned that although the US might follow the laws of war, terrorists could easily look at drone innovations and copy the idea to kill innocent people.

"We already know that Islamic State is using drones laden with explosives to kill people. What's to stop them from getting their hands on this? Copying has not been possible with big military drones, but once you get the idea that you can strap automatic weapons onto one and operate it remotely, that's very much easier," he said.

"This type of weapon is another dangerous step towards the development of fully autonomous weapons that could hunt down targets and kill them without human supervision."

 

[msommer]

This seems like a very bad idea

 

[Max Power]

I've heard this being kicked around for a couple years now.  Drones aren't stable enough for a machine gun to be very effective.  I could see this being useful as a base defense measure though. 

"stopping killer robots" is a whole different conversation. 

 

[otb_lifer]

i, for one, welcome our new lil' pistol packin' overlords

 

[[scooter]]

ED-209-A (Airborne Model)

 

[RokNRole]

Eventually a mass murder will get their hands on a few of these and use them. Going to be worse than that sniper pair.

 

[jimmy b]

Go to YouTube and check out Russian machine gun drones...this will keep you up at night.

 

[ghostguy123]

It's like none of these idiots have seen Terminator 2

 

[otb_lifer]

Go to YouTube and check out Russian machine gun drones

punk band outta Sevastapol, no?

 

[Arodin]

once you get the idea that you can strap automatic weapons onto one and operate it remotely, that's very much easier," he said.

Was that really such a difficult idea to come up with that this needed to be supressed lest the terrorists think of it?

We are reaching a point where our technology is advanced enough and weaponizable enough that regulation is going to be very diffiuclt if not impossible.  I wish I had a good answer, but trying to prevent such devices from being built strikes me as an exercise in futility.

Maybe we need antidrone technology to protect us from drone-wielding criminals...Im sure that wouldnt be similarly abused.

 

[Ditkaless Wonders]

Wouldn't small drones get pushed around rather severely by the recoil?  Must be midsized drones. 

 

[-OZ-]

Wouldn't small drones get pushed around rather severely by the recoil?  Must be midsized drones. 

You'd think so, if they're shooting anything of substance. unless they fire in both directions at once... 

Seems like small drones could lob grenades a lot easier. Probably couldn't carry more than a few but that could suffice.

 

[msommer]

Wouldn't small drones get pushed around rather severely by the recoil?  Must be midsized drones. 

You'd think so, if they're shooting anything of substance. unless they fire in both directions at once... 

Seems like small drones could lob grenades a lot easier. Probably couldn't carry more than a few but that could suffice.

Well, it seems Duke Robotics have a solution 

 

[Long Ball Larry]

guns, germs and steel indeed

and COAL!

 

[msommer]

Is "Killer Robot" Warfare closer than we think?

And this is what many experts fear, not that AI will become too smart - taking over the world like the Skynet supercomputer from the Terminator films - but that it's too stupid.

"The current problems are not with super-intelligent robots but with pretty dumb ones that cannot flexibly discriminate between civilian targets and military targets except in very narrowly contained settings," says Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University.

Despite such concerns, Kalashnikov's latest products are not the only autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons being trialled in Russia.

The Uran-9 is an unmanned ground combat vehicle and features a machine gun and 30mm cannon. It can be remotely controlled at distances of up to 10km.

And the diminutive Platform-M combat robot boasts automated targeting and can operate in extremes of heat and cold.

Meanwhile the Armata T-14 "super tank" has an autonomous turret that designer Andrei Terlikov claims will pave the way for fully autonomous tanks on the battlefield.

Manufacturer Uralvagonzavod also didn't respond to BBC requests for an interview

But Elizabeth Quintana, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, disagrees.

"Deploying robotic systems might be more attractive to politicians because there would be fewer body bags coming home.

"My view is that war is an inherently human activity and that if you wage war from a distance at another group or country, they will find a way to hurt you at home because that is the only way that they can retaliate."

The prospect of autonomous weapons systems inadvertently leading to an escalation in domestic terrorism or cyber-warfare is perhaps another reason to treat this new tech with caution.

 

[squidrope]

Drones have been carrying Bombs/Rockets for years. Machine guns are scary but not as scary as Bombs/Rockets