Killer Robot Cars
Not content to just develop sea-borne armed drones, Israel has been quietly fielding a fleet of ground-based killer robots. The Guardium is an armored desert buggy (we say it looks like a juiced out Smart Car) equipped with a number of sensors and weapons. The little cars can patrol autonomously, use their sensors to automatically identify threats, and, as the Israel Defense Force says, "use various forceful methods to eliminate" those threats. That's right, the Guardiums (Guardia?), which are prowling Israel's border with Gaza, can operate on their own, albeit with human oversight. The robots can "react to unscheduled events, in line with a set of guidelines specifically programmed for the site characteristics and security routines," according to their manufacturer, G-NUIS Unmanned Ground Systems. (This is exactly the kind of unmanned weapon that Human Rights Watch is getting extremely concerned with.) While the U.S. military is conducting very limited tests of unmanned jeeps to haul supplies for troops on patrol in Afghanistan, the Guardium may well be the world's first operational armed ground drone.
Israel Defense Forces
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