Militaries around the world ‘very excited’ about replacing soldiers with robots that can act independently
U.S. leads the way with automated weapons systems, but drones still need remote control operator authorisation to open fire
Human Rights Watch calls for worldwide ban on autonomous killing machines before governments start using them

Fully autonomous robots that decide for themselves when to kill could be developed within 20 to 30 years, or ‘even sooner’, a report has warned.

Militaries across the world are said to be ‘very excited’ about machines that could deployed alone in battle, sparing human troops from dangerous situations.

The U.S. is leading development in such ‘killer robots’, notably unmanned drones often used to attack suspected militants in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Rise Of The Machines: The third instalment of the Terminator film franchise imagines the chain of events that leads to death-dealing computers taking over the planet using robot soldiers

Drones are remotely controlled by human operators and unable to kill without authorisation, but weapons systems that require little human intervention already exist.

Raytheon’s Phalanx gun system, deployed on U.S. Navy ships, can search for enemy fire and destroy incoming projectiles by itself.