First Fully-Unmanned Machine Combat in History Heralds Robotic Apocalypse

For the first time in history, an unmanned machine has engaged and destroyed another unmanned machine in real combat. It sounds like science fiction, but it happened a week ago in Iraq, when a MQ-9 Reaper killed a remote controlled vehicle carrying a bomb.

The MQ-9–operated by the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron–destroyed the RC car using a laser-guided 500-pound GBU-12 bomb in southeast Iraq. The commander of the squadron, Lt. Col. Micah Morgan, said that they “searched for, found, fixed, targeted and destroyed a [threat] with just one aircraft.”

With an entire wing of UAVs in the US Air Force, we won’t be surprised to see full-scale unmanned and robotic battles in the near future. The question is: if nobody is going to die–except probably civilians on the ground–what’s the bloody point of real war? Why not just organise a videogame league and get over with it? [Aviation Week]