India’s Fighting Robots

India has joined the number of countries that are developing robotic battle systems – or more simply – robot soldiers. Ainash Chander, who is the head of the Defense Research and Development Organization of the Indian Armed Forces, said their robots will have the highest level of intelligence to date, which will allow them to distinguish an ally from a potential enemy.

The project, Chander noted, is one of the military department’s “top priorities”. Several Indian research laboratories are already working on it. The main purpose of robotic combat systems is to help prevent the loss of many human lives in military conflicts. It would seem that India, with its population of nearly two billion, had nothing to do with it.

Troops made up of robotic complexes are supposed to be deployed in controversial and difficult combat zones, such as the line of control that separates the armies of the two rival nuclear powers, Pakistan and India. Initially, humans will control combat robots, but after a while, robots will fight on the front line on their own, and humans will only provide them with the necessary technical assistance.

Indian specialists will have to work out a lot of technologies and corresponding materials for producing combat robots. There will also be a need for miniature communications, human interaction and self-learning technologies, cognitive technologies. The Indian military predicts that the first robotic units will not appear before ten years from now. That is, by 2055, when Russia finally changes the uniform for soldiers, India will have combat robots.

Chander said that similar work is actively being carried out in five to six countries.