Turkey is to become the first nation to use drones able to find, track and kill people without human intervention.
The country recently started producing armed, human-operated drones and is reported to have used them . Now, Turkish defence company STM has announced that the nation鈥檚 army will start using its Kargu drones early next year.
These 7-kilogram quadcopters are intended to be used as part of a cooperative swarm. A video posted on shows 20 Kargu drones flying together, automatically changing formation and carrying out a simulated attack on a ground target.
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Like other drones, Kargu can be directly controlled by a person. But it can also fly autonomously without a radio link, making it immune to someone trying to jam the control signal. It can be set to attack a point on the map or seek out a specific image when it gets to a location.
STM says a machine-learning algorithm allows Kargu to locate, track and identify different types of target, such as tanks or humans, and can distinguish people in the military from civilians.
Each drone carries a warhead that detonates when it flies into its target.
Its battery provides up to half an hour of flying time. STM says Kargu can return to base if it doesn鈥檛 find a target, and that it is cheaper than a comparable missile.
The drones look plausible, says Stuart Russell at the University of California, Berkeley. 鈥淎ll of the individual capabilities have been demonstrated elsewhere and most are available in commercial products,鈥� he says.聽 鈥淣othing here requires sophisticated new research.鈥�
Previous munitions such as the Israeli Harop drone can seek out radar emitters and attack them autonomously, but Kargu can target people.
鈥淭o my knowledge, this is the first that talks about 鈥榝acial recognition鈥� and 鈥榓nti-personnel鈥� capabilities,鈥� says Russell.
Other nations have held back from deploying autonomous systems. The US Pentagon says its drones will always be under direct human control. However, there are no legal restrictions on 鈥渒iller robots鈥� choosing their own targets, despite strong campaigning and discussion at the UN.
Proponents believe such weapons could be used within the laws of war and if they are more targeted could result in fewer civilian casualties.
However, others say autonomous weapons will be unable to make the nuanced judgements required, for example, to distinguish a bus full of children from one carrying troops. There are also issues over who is held accountable if something goes wrong and whether machines should make life-or-death decisions.
鈥淭urkey鈥檚 declared readiness to use a fully autonomous swarming attack drone shows the urgency of the movement to stop killer robots,鈥� says Mark Gubrud at the University of North Carolina.
STM hasn鈥檛 replied to 快猫短视频鈥檚 request for comment.
