China is one of the main military powers in the world without a doubt, as all the tests, trials and presentations of weapons have demonstrated it. Drones, tanks or hypersonic missiles These are just some examples of the material it has, as well as nuclear technology or artificial intelligence. Among all this, he has brought out his “last and special weapon” that he intends to give to his army: the killer robots.
Was almost ten years when the Asian giant began to be associated with this type of technology. In 2015, China tested controlling robots with its mind, a technology with obvious long-term applications in the military world. Something that seemed impossible little by little has become real, since Chinese forces have been working to achieve it, something that other powers such as the United States could not finish developing.
Last month, China already revealed one of its “killer robots”, a gun-mounted robotic dog manufactured by the Chinese company Unitree Robotics. For its part, Moscow, which was also behind these weapons, had already shown a modified dog from Unitree Robotics, renamed the M-81 robot dog and equipped with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, at an arms fair near Moscow in 2022.
“Unfortunately, China appears to be moving rapidly toward acquisition of killer robotsas do other major military powers,” Steve Goose, director of arms campaigns at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO that co-founded the “Stop Killer Robot” campaign, tells Newsweek.
“China’s rhetoric in diplomatic meetings on the killer robots, where he called for restrictions on autonomous weapons, has not been reflected in his actions“he added.
This unbridled progress has raised numerous warnings that non-human weapons would be incapable of respecting the laws of war and would eliminate countries’ reluctance to engage in conflict for fear of sacrificing troops.
The system allows automatically detecting and tracking people, drones or vehicles, reporting potential targets to a human operator who can be located anywhere in the world.
They are similar to the Q-UGVs being evaluated by the United States Marine Corps. The American weapon can be used in different types of missions and has the ability to automatically detect and track and attack people, drones or vehicles with the SENTRY Remote Weapons System.