By Voice Of Russia
The high command of the US Army considers replacing of up to 1,000 infantry soldiers with robots and other unmanned technological devices, said Gen. Robert Cone, at a recent military symposium in Virginia.
“I’ve got clear guidance to think about what if you could robotically perform some of the tasks in terms of maneuverability, in terms of the future of the force,” Defense News quotes Gen. Cone, head of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command.
He also noted that more unmanned ground vehicles are on the way and while the Army was pursuing a goal of shrinking its soldier count from 540,000 to 490,000 by 2014, and to 420,000 by 2019, an even smaller force could still prove successful – and his staff was currently forming an advisory panel to see how that could be accomplished.
As the general believes, 3,000 robots will “probably be enough to get by”.
“When you see the success, frankly, that the Navy has had in terms of lowering the numbers of people on ships, are there functions in the brigade that we could automate — robots or manned/unmanned teaming — and lower the number of people that are involved given the fact that people are our major cost?” said Gen. Robert Cone.
This point of view is widely shared by his counterparts. Lt. Gen. Keith Walker noted that the army “will need to fundamentally change the nature of the force, and that would require a breakthrough in science and technology.” He put that “deep future” date around 2030 or 204.
Gen. Walker didn’t reference robots – but did speak of “tooth-to-tail” ratios, in reference to the number of soldiers who work in support roles versus those on the front line.
“Right now our force is roughly two-third tooth and one-third tail, so as we decrease the size of the Army you may end up reducing one-third tooth and two-third tail, but what if you could slide that fulcrum? Maybe it’s one-half to one-half. The point is you get to keep more tooth, more folks that actually conduct operations on the ground and less supporting structure,” the general said in an interview with Defense News
Read more:
http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_22/US-plans-replacing-soldiers-with-robots-0889/
