NATO plans to form autonomous robot troops
According to foreign media reports, NATO recently paid 9 million euros to the German company ARX Robotics to develop and manufacture a series of unmanned ground vehicles. Some analysts believe that this means that NATO will start the process of "building an autonomous robotic force."
In 2023, NATO officially launched the Innovation Fund to support start-ups developing high-end technologies. The investment in ARX Robotics is the second public investment of the fund. ARX Robotics was founded in 2022 by retired German Army soldiers. It has developed 12 robots that can be used on the battlefield and has been tested by the armies of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary.
These robots look similar to small tanks, equipped with tracks, and can be equipped with radar, mine-clearing equipment, etc. as needed. They can perform tasks such as cargo handling, mine-clearing, medical evacuation, and acting as targets. They can use software and artificial intelligence technology to communicate, operate autonomously, and can also be remotely controlled when necessary. The large unmanned ground vehicle developed by ARX Robotics can carry a maximum load of 500 kilograms.
According to reports, the new robots to be developed by ARX Robotics are not equipped with lethal weapons and are mainly used to support ground troop transportation, medical evacuation or drone deployment. Mark Whitfield, the company's CEO and co-founder, said that Western armies are not yet ready for robot warfare. However, some analysts believe that all of the company's robots are modular and are assembled using ready-made standardized components, which can be installed in a short time. Therefore, if the robot is required to take on battlefield offensive tasks, it is easy to implement modification.
It is reported that the company's unmanned ground vehicles are relatively cheap, with unit prices ranging from 30,000 to 150,000 euros, which is in line with NATO's idea of easy large-scale production and decentralized deployment.
NATO's NATO Science and Technology Organization is regarded by the outside world as the world's largest cooperative research institution in the field of national defense and security. Its members include thousands of professional scientific and technological personnel. Its main function is to provide scientific and technological innovation policy recommendations to NATO and its partner countries. The organization believes that robots and autonomous systems are playing an increasingly important role in the military field and may become a key factor affecting military capabilities and have an inestimable impact on the future form of warfare.
In 2020 and 2023, NATO's Science and Technology Organization released two research reports on technology development trends, listing and analyzing a number of emerging technologies that can enhance NATO's deterrence and defense capabilities. The organization believes that NATO should not only focus on developing robots that can act independently or with minimal human intervention, but also promote the research and development of autonomous systems and develop various independent or semi-independent systems, such as software applications, drones, and self-driving vehicles.
NATO's Science and Technology Organization pointed out that the decline in the labor force and the advancement of artificial intelligence technology will give rise to a large number of robots and autonomous systems. In the future, these systems will be widely used in various fields. As early as 2020, NATO's Science and Technology Organization suggested that NATO countries should focus on combat and systems, autonomous platforms and designs, human-machine interaction, sensor technology, interoperability and countermeasures, and promote research on robotics and autonomous systems.
In October 2021, NATO released its first artificial intelligence strategy, requiring NATO to pay attention to promoting the research and development and application of military artificial intelligence technology. According to reports, most robots and even unmanned systems currently deployed by NATO are semi-autonomous in nature, that is, they use the "man in the loop" mode, and human operators remotely control the system, provide situational assessments and make decisions. There are still very few fully autonomous military intelligent systems.
Under the influence of regional conflicts, NATO released the "Military Artificial Intelligence Related Plan" in October 2022, which explicitly requires maintaining NATO's technological advantage in military artificial intelligence. NATO's Science and Technology Organization believes that to maintain its technological advantage, NATO needs to focus on human-computer interaction research and development to integrate robotics and autonomous systems into NATO's military forces as soon as possible. In order to control the cost of armament construction, NATO needs to objectively evaluate military technology needs and achieve a balanced development of low-cost autonomous systems that can be quickly mass-produced and expensive cutting-edge weapon systems.
It should be pointed out that NATO's integration of robotic technology and autonomous systems into the alliance's combat system will not only face challenges such as the integration of traditional weapon systems and modern weapon systems, and the integration of systems from different countries, but also require the resolution of relevant legal, ethical and weapons control issues.
