Send in the drones

The future belongs to robots.

Not satisfied with the abilities of its current crop of robots, the Pentagon wants unmanned machines that can operate completely without human controllers. At present, most of these systems are controlled by radio signals or through long wires, known as a "robot-on-a-rope."

"The goal is a fully autonomous system by 2020," said Jeffrey Kotora, the manager of the Joint Robotics Program in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's office. Killion called it "a system that has the smarts to operate like a manned system."

I'm not so sure a completely robotic force of military robots that requires no human intervention is such a good idea. Don't these people ever watch sci-fi movies? You make a machine too smart and one day you wake up and no only does it stop listening to you, it turns against you and takes over.
[via The Flight Times]