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36 Citi GPS: Global Perspectives & Solutions February 2015 Figure 20. Various unmanned air platforms Source: Wikipedia • Land – A wide variety of systems for ISF, route clearance, transport and attack. There are no major identifiable platforms, although videos of human/animal-like robots being studied for their transportation capabilities are popular. Figure 21. Gladiator Source: US Defense Department © 2015 Citigroup
February 2015 Citi GPS: Global Perspectives & Solutions 37 • Sea – Often overlooked, unmanned maritime systems are used above and below the surface for ISR, mine-hunting and strike. Figure 22. Silver Marlin Source: Military Technology Dr Alex Leveringhaus James Martin Fellow Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Oxford Martin School Concerns on military automation revolve around the extent to which the automation of targeting processes is legally and ethically defensible Automation of targeting processes is not illegal, but it must be shown that the weapon can identify the correct target Ethical and Legal Considerations of Military Automation Automation within the military is increasingly significant, and particularly controversial. It is easy to see why automation is attractive to the military; it potentially increases the speed of warfare, allows fighting from greater distances and shields soldiers from physical harm. Military automation is not a new phenomenon; automated missile defence systems have existed for over half a century. Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS), often known as ‘drones’, are already partially automated in their flight and surveillance functions. Yet with advances in Artificial Intelligence programming techniques, the automation of military systems could become more sophisticated in the future, raising concerns about the legality of automated systems as well as their compatibility with fundamental ethical principles. In RPAS, for instance, it might be possible to further reduce the role of the pilot to a point where an operator merely pre-programmes the machine so that, once deployed, it can carry out a mission independently. The debate on military automation primarily concerns the extent to which the automation of targeting processes is legally and ethically defensible. For a legal and ethical assessment of automated military systems, it is important to draw three distinctions. Firstly, it is crucial to distinguish between military systems that are classifiable as weapons — meaning that they have been designed to carry and deliver a ‘payload’ aimed at a specific target — and those that are not. A bomb disposal robot, for example, could be automated to a high degree, yet it is not designed to apply force to a target. Secondly, within military systems classifiable as weapons, it is vital to distinguish between the automation of functions that are not directly related to targeting and the automation of targeting functions; the flight functions of an RPAS could be automated, but this does not mean that its targeting functions should also be automated. Finally, it must be recognised that the automation of targeting functions is a complex undertaking. It is important to distinguish between the partial automation of the targeting process and automation of the whole targeting process. It is noteworthy that the potential automation of targeting processes is not illegal. Nevertheless, the legal threshold for the deployment of a weapon with automated targeting functions, especially when these are fully automated, is high. In particular, it must be shown that its deployment complies with the principle of distinction, which © 2015 Citigroup
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