A combine harvester terminator in the Warner Bros. film Terminator Salvation. Report warns of a journey towards a Terminator-like reality. Image: Shooting Star/eyevineThe increasing use of unmanned aircraft in combat situations raises important moral and legal issues, and threatens to make war more likely as armed robots takes over from people, according to an internal investigation of the Ministry of defence.
Report warns of the danger of a "step-by-step and involuntary travel against a Terminator-like reality", referring to James Cameron's 1984 film, is chased by the robotic killing machines in which people. It says the pace of technological development is gathering pace for the application of this rate to United Kingdom quickly should establish a policy for what would constitute "acceptable machine behaviour".
"It is essential that before unmanned systems become ubiquitous (if it is too late already) … we ensure that by removing some of the horror, or at least keep it at a distance, we do not run the risk of losing our controlling humanity and make war more likely," the report warns, titled The UK approach to unmanned aircraft systems. The remaining officials have never before stumbled along so honestly ethical with the use of male broods. The report was commissioned by Britain's Defence chiefs and coincides with continuing controversy about male broods use in Afghanistan, and growing Pakistani anger at CIA drone attacks against suspected insurgents on the Afghan borders.
It is stated that "the recent extensive use of unmanned aircraft over Pakistan and Yemen can already heralds a new era". Regard to the descriptions of "killer male broods" in Afghanistan, notes that "sentiment is likely to run high as armed systems acquire more autonomy".
Insurgents "gain every time a mistake is made" activation of them to throw themselves "in underdog role and the West as a cowardly Bully, is unwilling to risk his own troops, but is happy to kill remote access", adds the report.
Pakistan demanded last week that the U.S. stops drone strikes and drastically cut its CIA officers. David Cameron said in December that British male broods had killed 124 rebels in Afghanistan since June 2008, when them as a "classic example of a modern weaponswhich are necessary for today's war ". Male broods, known as the Reapers to date, has fired 167 missiles and bombs in Afghanistan.
The report was drawn up last month by the Ministry's internal thinktank, development, concepts and doctrine Centre (DCDC), based in Shrivenham, Wiltshire, which is part of the MoD central staff. The Centre's reports shall be sent to the most senior officers in all three branches of the armed forces and influence policy and strategy.
The concept of "fighting from barracks" or "remote warrior" raises such questions as whether a person who operates air vehicles – sometimes from thousands of miles away and "walking in the streets of his hometown after a break" – is a legitimate aim as a giant. "We fully understand the psychological effects on external operators to wage war at a distance?" asks officials. There is one school of thought, the Note, which proposes, for war is morally, in contrast to just legal, "it must link the killing of enemies with an element of self-sacrifice or at least risk to himself."
"Human in the loop role before now, been a legal requirement, as we are now seeing is eroded," warns against the report. Asks: "what is human from a moral and ethical point of view role in automated systems? … To a robotic, a school bus and a tank is the same – only algorithms in an application … the robot has no sense of ends, ways, do not need to know why it is that the pursuit of a goal. "Chris Cole, a defender that is running Drone wars UK website, which monitors the development of unmanned weapons systems, welcomed the investigation Against at the same time calling for a moratorium on the use of male broods of British forces.
"There must be an open and public debate about the implications of remote warfare, and it may be that a Parliamentary Select Committee of inquiry would be the appropriate forum to initiate this discussion," he said. The report notes Against "currently has no intention to develop systems that operate without human intervention in weapons command and control chain".
However, is Against, as the Pentagon, eager to develop more and more sophisticated "automatic" weapons, it admits.
The report also identifies the benefits of an unmanned weapons system, which prevents the potential loss of aircrew life, which means "is in itself morally justified." It adds: "Robots can not emotional, can not hate. A robot cannot be driven by anger to carry out illegal actions such as the My Lai [massacre by American troops of hundreds of unarmed civilians in South Viet Nam in March 1968].
"In theory" says, therefore, Against the investigation, "autonomy should enable more ethical and legal warfare. However, we must ensure that clear accountability for robotic tanks exist, and it raises a number of difficult negotiations. A programmer is guilty of a war crime, if a system failure leads to an illegal operation? Where is the intent required for an accident to be a crime? "
U.S.-produced General Atomics Reaper is currently RAFS armed only unmanned aircraft. It can carry up to four Hellfire missiles, two 230 kg (500 lb) bombs and 12 Paveway II guided bombs. It can fly more than 18 hours, have a range of 3,600 km and can operate at up to 15 metres (50, 000 ft).
The Reaper is operated by RAF personnel based at Creech in Nevada. It is controlled via a satellite data link. Earlier this year David Cameron promised to increase the number of RAF Reapers in Afghanistan from four to nine at an estimated cost of £ 135 million.
Courage is also funding the development of the BAE Systems a long-range unmanned aircraft, known as Taranis, designed to fly "jet speed" between continents while controlled from anywhere in the world using satellite communications.
Richard Norton-Taylor
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