Fully autonomous weapons would decide who lives and dies, without further human intervention, which crosses a moral threshold. As machines, they would lack the inherently human characteristics such as compassion that are necessary to make complex ethical choices. The US, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and the UK are developing weapons systems with significant autonomy in the critical functions of selecting and attacking targets. If left unchecked the world could enter a destabilizing...
more »Fully autonomous weapons would decide who lives and dies, without further human intervention, which crosses a moral threshold. As machines, they would lack the inherently human characteristics such as compassion that are necessary to make complex ethical choices. The US, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and the UK are developing weapons systems with significant autonomy in the critical functions of selecting and attacking targets. If left unchecked the world could enter a destabilizing robotic arms race. Fully autonomous weapons would lack the human judgment necessary to evaluate the proportionality of an attack, distinguish civilian from combatant, and abide by other core principles of the laws of war.
The first chapter takes place in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, which is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus. On April 4th 2016, a house was destroyed in Talish by an attack from an Azerbaijani military drone IAI Harop. Nine men from the "Volunteers Union of Country Defenders" ( from Sisian region in Armenia) were killed by the drone explosion. The IAI Harop is a loitering munition developed by the MBT division of Israel Aerospace Industries.
The second chapter takes place in Schleswig-Holstein State, Germany. Fliegerhorst Schleswig is an airbase of the German Air Force, home to the unit: Aufklärungsgeschwader 51. "Immelmann" (AKG 51) and the IAI Heron unit. The IAI Heron (Machatz-1) is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the Malat (UAV) division of Israel Aerospace Industries.
The third chapter takes place in Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Unmanned Systems Exhibition (UMEX 2020). UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); which include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (or uncrewed aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone) is an aircraft without a human pilot on board and a type of unmanned vehicle.
The fourth chapter takes place in Brno,
Czech Republic. The International Defence and Security Technologies (IDET 2021) fair is an important defence and security technology show.
The fifth chapter takes place in Paris, France. Eurosatory 2022 is the international reference for land and airland Defence and Security exhibition.
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