The increasing use of automated or future autonomous weapon systems (AWS) could represent a paradigm shift and warfare in 21. Revolutionize the century. The Office for Technology Assessment at the Bundestag assumes this in an analysis that has now been published. Politicians must act promptly to prevent a terminator scenario with killer robots that have gone out of control.

Further than expected AWS is no longer science fiction, the authors explain on 260 Pages. The enormous technical advances that have been made in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years have pushed the concept of “autonomously acting weapons now on the threshold of concrete implementation”.

“Automation and autonomy are already used today for a wide range of functions in weapon systems,” says the study. “This includes the search and identification of potential targets with the help of sensor data, target tracking, prioritization and determination of the time for the attack on these targets as well as the control for the target approach”.

Without human involvement So far, the selection of possible hits, the attack decision and the approval of the use of weapons have been made by a human commander or operator. An AWS would be able to carry out all these steps automatically and without human or with only minimal human involvement, the scientists state.

This would have decisive military advantages: An autonomous system does not require a communication link a base station and allow faster reaction times in combat situations, as there would be no delays due to the runtimes of a data transmission and the reaction times of a human decision maker. Increased autonomy of weapon systems is therefore “on the agenda in all technologically advanced countries”.