Killer drones are already a reality and they are killing in Libya

It’s official: “Killer drones” they are already with us. What until now seemed a fiction of Black mirror or part of the dissemination and awareness video Slaughter robots -which has three million views on YouTube- is already a reality. A report commissioned by the United Nations Security Council and released this week details how a military drone without human control took part in a battle of the Libyan civil war. The drone, which the document describes as “an autonomous and deadly weapons system”, was equipped with artificial intelligence and was used by government-backed forces based in Tripoli against fighters from enemy militias as they were fleeing attacks with rockets. The fighters “They were pursued and attacked from a distance by unmanned aerial combat vehicles or lethal autonomous weapons systems.”analysts wrote without specifying the number of victims in the action.

The drone used is a Cargo-2 construido por Defense Technologies and Trade Inc. (STM), a defense company based in Turkey. On its website, the STM describes the weapon as “a rotary wing attack drone” that can be used autonomously or manually. “The system is programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between operator and ammunition: indeed, a real ability to ‘find, shoot and forget’», He specifies. It also has facial recognition technology, “which is a great advantage for Turkish security forces in identifying individual targets so that they can be neutralized without the need to deploy ground forces.”

The report does not specify how many Kargu-2 type drones have been launched. The aim was to “neutralize” the fleeing militiamen after a fierce battle in the Libyan desert in March of last year. “Once in retirement, they were subjected to continuous harassment from the Deadly Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles and Autonomous Weapons SystemsAccording to the report, prepared by the UN Group of Experts on Libya and presented in confidence. The findings on the drone attack, described in the 548-page document, were reported last month by trade magazine The New Scientist, but details were not known until now.

Drones have been used in military attacks for over a decade. The Barack Obama administration has used drone actions as a counterterrorism strategy for years, and former President Donald Trump has extended its use in several conflicts in Africa. China, Russia and Israel also operate drone fleets. The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia last year was a major testing and development ground for military drones. But so far there was no clear evidence from independent sources, as described in the UN report, of the use of these destruction machines which will be managed autonomously after having programmed them with a specific objective.

Turkish War Inventory drones can operate autonomously in non-GPS environments. They have the ability to set goals using computer algorithms rather than taking control from the operator sitting elsewhere. They can attack enemy installations at high speed and detonate their warheads. The Kargu-2s were deployed to Libya to launch “Swarm attacks” against the militias of the warlord Khalifa Haftar. “Autonomous drones offer an operational advantage in any conflict and Turkey already has a very advanced development of a flotilla of hundreds of such drones,” TRTWorld Merve Seren, professor at Yildirim Beyazit University in Ankara, told TV. .

The “Slaghterbots” video which presents a future in which drones are tasked with assassinating political opponents

The report notes that the attack occurred during a clash between government fighters based in Tripoli, supported by Turkey and officially recognized by the United States and other Western powers, and the militia forces led by Khalifa Hifter, which has the support of Russia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and possibly France. In October last year, a ceasefire was reached and an agreement on the distribution of oil royalties was reached, as well as a general election to be held in December 2021 and during which Hifter is expected to be held. present as a presidential candidate. In all cases, fighting and attacks from other forces such as affiliates of ISIS, ISIS and the Al-Qaeda terrorist network operating in Libya.

There is, precisely, great concern among defense experts around the world that this artificial intelligence technology could fall into the hands of terrorist groups. Several human rights organizations have also warned that “killer drones” can spark a global arms race. The relative cost of these weapons is low and the technology quite accessible. And the prestigious Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of the University of Chicago assures that “the stability of the control of AI in weapon systems has not yet been achieved” so it turns these machines into “A threat to humanity”.

Subject matter expert Professor James Dawes of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, believes that “the race to regulate these weapons is being lost, a potentially catastrophic event. And the heavy investment that armies around the world are making in autonomous weapon systems they can lead us to a confrontation with consequences that humans might not control”. According to information processed by the international war industry, until now, drones are still far below the intelligence of human beings. “Machines can easily make mistakes, like confuse a farmer holding a rake with an enemy soldier holding a gunDawes maintains. But that can change. “We do not exactly know the autonomy of action of these drones, but the mere mention of their existence should already have turned on all the red lights of the world powers,” he adds.

“These types of ‘wandering’ weapons show how human control and judgment in life and death decisions is eroding, potentially to an unacceptable degree,” wrote Mary Wareham, director of arms defense at Human Rights. Watch and coordinator of “Campaign to stop the killer robots”, which aims to ban fully autonomous weapons. Wareham believes that countries “must act in the interests of humanity by negotiating a new international treaty banning fully autonomous weapons and maintain meaningful human control over the use of force”.

Meanwhile, autonomous war machines such as drones operating in Libya are here to stay and the armies of the great powers are working to develop their own models. The Turkish Kargu-2 is just one example that has come to light. And he specifies that the famous first law of robotics launched by Isaac Asimov in 1942 is called into question: A robot will not harm a human or allow a human to be injured.

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