GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF ROBOTS IN ARMED CONFLICTS IN THE XXI CENTURY

Abstract

This article studies the new weapon systems that can transform the notion itself of “armed conflict” in the classic sense of the term. The author deeply analyzes the differences between concepts such as robot, droid, android, UAS and UCAS, the new military hardware, and how will be the combat aircrafts of the future with systems of artificial intelligence, the field robotics, as well as the interaction between men and machines in the future combat and, finally, the revolution that the employment of this type of weapons cause in the traditional concepts of Humanitarian Law and self-defense right. The author concludes with a few reflections on the role that the newest technologies have to play necessarily in the conventional and unconventional warfare and the influence that its use will produce when these weapons will be considered “normal” in the whole world system.