by Marc Canellas and Rachel Haga

Autonomous weapons systems (AWS) are already here. Although some of the colloquial names for AWS may suggest science fiction (killer robots [1], [2], terminators [3], and cyborg assassins [3]), these systems are anything but fiction. Since the 1970s the U.S. Navy’s “Phalanx” Close-In Weapon System has been capable of “autonomously performing its own search, detect, evaluation, track, engage and kill assessment functions” against high-speed threats such as missiles, ships, aircraft, and helicopters [4]. Not limited to the U.S., Germany has developed a similar land vehicle defense system, the Active Vehicle Protection System, which has a reaction time of less than 400 ms when launching fragmentation grenades against incoming missiles [5].
AWS are possible due to the convergence of new technology supply and well-established military demand [6]. The drivers of military demand can be summed up as force multiplication, expanding the battle-space, extending the warfighters’ reach, and casualty reduction [7]. As for technology supply, over the past three decades, sensors and transmitters have decreased in cost while increasing in functionality. As a result, AWS sit at the intersection of novel automation capable of making decisions without humans and established lethal weapons.

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