FUTURE WAR MACHINES - Robots, Railguns, Drones at the Forefront of Future Wars

 A radical new weapon that can fire a shell at seven times the speed of sound has been shown off in public for the first time.

Described as 'Star Wars technology' by researchers, the railgun can fire shells at seven times speed of sound, and penetrate concrete 100 miles away.

The weapon was on display to the public for the first time at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology EXPO at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Using electromagnetic energy, the gun can fire a shell weighing 10kg at up to 5,400mph over 100 miles – with such force and accuracy it penetrates three concrete walls or six half-inch thick steel plates.

Two prototypes of the weapon have been developed for the US Navy – one by British arms manufacturer BAE Systems and the second by a US firm.

The BAE version was shown off this week.

Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, head of US Naval Research, said the futuristic electromagnetic railgun – so called because it fires from two parallel rails – had already undergone extensive testing on land.

It will be mounted on high-speed vessel the USNS Millinocket for sea trials in 2016.

'It's now reality and it's not science fiction,' Admiral Klunder said. 'It's firing. An electromagnetic railgun is a gun that uses just electricity – no gun powder – and … can shoot a projectile well over 100 miles at Mach 7. Energetic weapons, such as EM railguns, are the future of naval combat.'

Electromagnetic launchers were one of the areas researched by Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative, nicknamed 'Star Wars' after the science fiction film franchise.

With its phenomenal striking power, Railgun’s projectile has the capability to strike targets at distances of more than 200 nautical miles from a warship in about six minutes. What makes Railgun exceptional is its use of electricity, rather than gunpowder or rocket motors to hurl hypersonic projectiles at long distances with speeds exceeding Mach 7. Lethal autonomous weapons systems that can select and engage targets do not yet exist, but they are being developed. Are the ethical and legal problems that such "killer robots" pose so fraught that their development must be banned?

Human Rights Watch thinks so. In its 2012 report Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots, the activist group demanded that the nations of the world "prohibit the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons through an international legally binding instrument."

Similarly, the robotics and ethics specialists who founded the International Committee on Robot Arms Control want "a legally binding treaty to prohibit the development, testing, production and use of autonomous weapon systems in all circumstances."

Choosing whether to kill a human being is the archetype of a moral decision. When deciding whether to pull the trigger, a soldier consults his conscience and moral precepts; a robot has no conscience or moral instincts. But does that really matter? While human soldiers are moral agents possessed of consciences, they are also flawed people engaged in the most intense and unforgiving forms of aggression. Under the pressure of battle, fear, panic, rage and vengeance can overwhelm the moral sensibilities of soldiers. The result, all too often, is an atrocity. "Delegation of responsibility to human and non-human components is a socio-technical design choice, not an inevitable outcome technological development," Johnson and Noorman note. "Robots for which no human actor can be held responsible are poorly designed sociotechnical systems."

Instead of a comprehensive treaty, Waxman and Johnson urge countries, especially the United States, to eschew secrecy and be open about their war robot development plans and progress. Lethal autonomous weapon systems are being developed incrementally, which gives humanity time to understand better their benefits and costs.

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