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 @ISIDEWITHNewsDaily DiscussionRussiaVladimir PutindronesVolodymyr ZelenskiyRobotsUkraine•••1yr ago

Ukrainian Officials See Ground Robots As ‘Game Changer’ In War

Ukrainian officials are receiving an increasing amount of applications from robotics vendors who want their systems tested for utility in combat, a sign that unmanned ground capabilities are growing in importance amid the relative stalemate along the front line with Russia.

Officials at Brave1, a government defense-technology hub tasked with getting new capabilities field-ready, announced that more than 50 ground robotic systems and more 140 unmanned ground vehicles have been submitted for evaluation.

“Hundreds of them will be procured through United24 to strengthen the Ukrainian army on the battlefield in a few months – UGVs will become the next game changer in this war, [like] drones already have,” a March 12 Brave1 statement circulated on the organization’s social media channels said. United24 is Ukrainian government-run platform for collecting donations for the embattled country.

In the last year, an increasing number of these types of platforms have emerged on the battlefield, being used and tested for a widening array of missions. Ukrainian social media channels recently published footage reportedly showing a UGV capable of laying six anti-tank mines at a time.

In pictures posted online by Brave1, a variety of small-scale tracked and wheeled ground robots are seen on the move, armed with guns, evacuating injured dummies and equipped with what appears to be mine-detection equipment.

55 Replies

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

Would you support your country's military using ground robots in battle, and why or why not?

 @9KWNXH7 from Michigan  commented…1yr1Y

They are setting our country up for failure.

 @9KWNTYN from Minnesota  commented…1yr1Y

I am not quite sure, and would have to look into the topic more to find a viewpoint on this.

 @9KWNDLVConstitution from Michigan  commented…1yr1Y

I think having robots fight our battles would be a great idea, without having human emotion or insticts to tell the robot to turn around or run or surender it would lead to a better battle. and less human lives loss

 @9KWVNHCPeace and Freedom from Louisiana  commented…1yr1Y

I would not support the military but it is not my choice and I hope they would do what is best for America.

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

Do you think the use of ground robots in combat makes war more or less ethical?

 @9KWRT94commented…1yr1Y

War is inherently unethical. You could argue for either side, really.

 @9KWSJD7 from Pennsylvania  commented…1yr1Y

More ethical. The less human lives lost fighting a rich man’s war, the better.

 @9KWRY8GIndependentcommented…1yr1Y

no because war is not ethical no matter what

 @9KWRTDWcommented…1yr1Y

Well, depends on severity and the lengths taken.

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

If robots are doing the fighting, what emotions does that provoke when considering the value of human life versus robot 'life'?

 @9KWPDJM from Illinois  commented…1yr1Y

I think that everyone wants robots now to take over the human acts

 @9KWTJ94Republican from Pennsylvania  commented…1yr1Y

I think that at some point, us humans will lose all will to fight and be scared of the concept of war, but I am fine with the usage and help of robots in terms of drones, planes, tanks, etc.

 @9KWTRCQRepublican from New Hampshire  commented…1yr1Y

People are going to end up empathizing for the robots and it will tear the world apart more than it currently is.

 @9KWTJCGJustice party member from Pennsylvania  commented…1yr1Y

Robots have no morality, and that takes away from military training. It is unhealthy and provokes the usage of robots in our every day lives.

 @UncommonLocustGreenfrom New Jersey  disagreed…1yr1Y

This is a key piece of the emerging dystopian future where human error and false assumptions are written in code and executed at lightning speed without any human governance. The idea that entire populations could be held hostage to machines controlled by a few is the logical end point of this technology.

Be afraid.

 @RobustUnanimousSocialistfrom North Carolina  agreed…1yr1Y

Of course killer robots are the perfect solution to disloyal working class soldiers who might decide to disobey orders and not shoot their families and friends.

 @MotivatedRedStatePeace and Freedomfrom Texas  commented…1yr1Y

There is no point in creating killing machines to kill other machines. These tools are going to be used to control civilians. These tools, combined with the rise of authoritarian governments, should give people a reason to be concerned and demand a resolution regarding the use of autonomous or drone warfare against civilians. Ideally the resolution should be passed before they are used, unlike the resolutions against chemical and nuclear warfare, which were only passed due to widespread horror and condemnation.

 @M0derateRaisinsNo Labelsfrom Texas  agreed…1yr1Y

We seem dead set on getting to a point where we can treat war as one giant real world video game. The more technology progresses the happier I am that I’m old and will be long gone before most if this comes to fruition.

 @FreeTradeJellyfishNo Labelsfrom Maine  commented…1yr1Y

The next step is when independent AI weapons have to decide whether to take out the enemy's independent AI weapons. Eventually there may be no humans on battlefields. There would be a lot of destruction, but no loss of human life. But if countries are just destroying each other's robots, why not use virtual robots instead of real ones. Will war become a giant video game but with real results?

 @SolidSquirrelSocialist from Arkansas  agreed…1yr1Y

How many young American men and women died or were permanently disabled because we didn't mount weapons on drone platforms in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today there is no reason an American soldier should walk openly in a hostile environment. AI should be reserved for defensive purposes.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…8mos8MO

ICC Arrest Warrants Push Israel Into Unprecedented Global Backlash

Arrest warrants issued for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister over alleged war crimes threaten to deepen the global isolation of a country already under pressure around the world for its handling of the war in the Gaza Strip.Israeli officials are concerned the warrants and the still-secret details of the charges could imperil Israeli government and military officials who travel abroad and could be detained for alleged war crimes.The move by the International Criminal Court will complicate travel by Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who would risk arrest in any of the court’s 124 member countries, which technically are obliged to enforce the arrest warrants.The warrants will lead some governments to scale down contacts with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, according to legal experts and officials familiar with the situation. They could also spur efforts to bring new war-crimes cases against lower-ranking Israeli and Hamas officials in national courts in Europe and elsewhere. More subtly, they could also encourage an ad-hoc pattern of shunning Israeli academics, defense companies and officials that has taken root in countries and institutions angry at the toll of the war in Gaza.The ICC warrants are likely to have the greatest effect on Israel’s relations with countries in Europe, which have been broadly supportive of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and the resulting war. All 27 members of the European Union, along with the U.K., are parties to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that created the court.European countries have been split in their reactions to the decision. Some, such as the Netherlands, say plainly they would enforce the arrest warrants. Hungary, led by right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, invited Netanyahu to visit on Friday in defiance of the ICC’s decision. Germany, caught between its support for the court and its history of the Holocaust, said it would carefully examine any steps it takes should Netanyahu or Gallant decide to visit.“Almost all of them would arrest Netanyahu if he were to visit, which means it’s pretty guaranteed that he won’t,” said Anthony Dworkin, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “I’d be quite surprised even if he goes to Hungary.”

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…9mos9MO

Netanyahu's Aide Arrested: Did Leaked Intel Sabotage Hostage Rescue?

Israeli police have arrested a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and four others for allegedly leaking classified information to foreign media, court documents released on Sunday revealed. The intelligence allegedly claimed Hamas was planning to smuggle Israeli captives from Gaza to Egypt.Opposition leaders say the intelligence was leaked to take pressure off Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would bring home the roughly 100 Israeli captives still held by the Palestinian resistance movement. It is estimated that roughly 70 remain alive.Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged ceasefire talks with Hamas since the start of the war on October 7 last year, despite heavy pressure from the families of the captives to reach a deal.Court documents released on Sunday identified Eliezer Feldstein, an aide to Netanyahu, as one of several people being detained and interrogated over the leak of “classified and sensitive intelligence information.” The names of the other four detained persons have not been cleared for publication by Israel's military censors.The intelligence was leaked to two foreign media outlets, the Jewish Chronicle in the UK and Bild in Germany, both of which published stories about the leaked intelligence. The Jewish Chronicle later retracted its story.The court documents said that information taken from the Israeli military’s systems and “illegally issued” may have damaged Israel’s ability to free the captives held by Hamas in Gaza.Opposition leader Yair Lapid on Sunday accused the prime minister’s office of leaking “faked secret documents to torpedo the possibility of a hostage deal – to shape a public opinion influence operation against the hostages’ families.”By claiming that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning to flee to Egypt with the captives, the leaked documents appeared to promote Netanyahu’s claim in the minds of the Israeli public that any ceasefire deal must allow Israel to keep its forces on the Philadelphia Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border. Otherwise, the captives could end up in Egypt’s Sinai or “pop up in Iran or Yemen,” Netanyahu claimed.Netanyahu added the demand that Israel be allowed to continue occupying the Philadelphia Corridor in the 11th hour of negotiations for a ceasefire this summer. The demand torpedoed the talks, as Hamas has long insisted on a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any ceasefire deal.

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