Robot vehicles are increasingly taking a role on the battlefield - but their deployment raises moral and philosophical as well as technical questions, says Pete Warren
Pete Warren -- GuardianOct. 26, 2006 -- In November 2004, during the second battle of Fallujah, an American uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) -- a robot plane -- located a mortar battery that had been hampering the U.S. operation to retake the town. The mortar's position was logged by the UAV's operator, who was sitting at his desk in Nellis Air Force base near Las Vegas, thousands of miles away. Using the internet, the operator contacted the operator of another armed UAV at a desk in central command ("Centcom") -- a safe area away from the theatre of war, with centres in Kuwait, Qutar or Iraq.
The two operators swapped information on the mortar in a secure internet chat room, guiding the armed drone to its position to destroy the mortar and its crew.
According to Lieutenant General John Sattler, commander of the coalition forces at the battle, it was a proving ground for the use of remote vehicles. "We learned that UAVs can provide the coordinates required for artillery as well as aviation [targeting]. Our UAVs gave us the grid coordinates of an enemy position and allowed us to clear the area for fires and estimate collateral damage," says Sattler.
The new remote-controlled technology was also tested in 2001 in the Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, believed to be the last stronghold for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida fighters. Sending soldiers into the caves to try to capture fighters inside would carry huge risks. Instead, the US sent in armed Talon reconnaissance drones -- small tanks equipped with camera and sensing equipment, and armed with anything from a sniper's rifle to rocket launchers. They were used to identify caves and positions held by al-Qaida.
Information gleaned from the Talons was used to direct what rapidly became a mopping-up operation -- although bin Laden was not caught.
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