Development of Standalone LAWS Sample Clauses

Development of Standalone LAWS. Xxxxxxx notes that much of the technology for basic autonomous loitering munitions has existed for decades, but has not been widely developed or fielded.108 A notable exception was the Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile (TASM), which was in service in the US Navy from 1982 to 1994.109 However, the TASM was retired and never actually fired in battle because Navy commanders were reluctant to launch a high-cost, limited- supply and non-returnable munition without concrete evidence that an actual warship was in the loitering area.110 The advent of recoverable drone platforms arguably 100 Xxxxxxx and Xxxxxxxx (n 30); Xxxxxxxx (n 29). 101 Ibid. 102 Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx, Swarm Troopers: How Small Drones Will Conquer the World (Archangel Ink, 2015). 103 Xxxx Xxxxxxx, Robotics on the Battlefield Part II: The Coming Swarm (CNAS, 2014) <xxxxx://x0.xxxxxxxxx.xxx/xxxxx.xxxx.xxx/documents/CNAS_TheComingSwarm_Scharre.pdf> accessed 10 May 2018 (discussing how swarms of robotic systems can bring greater mass, coordination, intelligence and speed to the battlefield, thereby increasing the chance of gaining a decisive advantage over adversaries). 104 Namely, there is the option to visually zoom-in on the radar-emitting object, compare the image with a database of known ‘friendly’ sites; if no match is recognised, the Harpy proceeds to dive-bomb into its target. 105 Xxxx Xxxxxxx, ‘Autonomy, “Killer Robots,” and Human Control in the Use of Force – Part I’, Just Security (9 July 2014) <xxxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx/12708/autonomy-killer-robots-human-control- force-part/> accessed 10 May 2018. 106 Ibid. 107 Xxxxxxxx (n 29) points out, at 92-94, that the operator’s usage can make semi-autonomous weapons fully autonomous. 108 Xxxxxxx (n 13), 49. 109 Ibid., 53. 110 Ibid., 54. changes this: these can be sent on missions with less accurate intelligence, and if no specific targets are detected, the drone can return to base with no loss of capacity.111 This alone can be expected to increase their appeal relative to autonomous munitions. That said, the latter is still likely to be fielded for targeted strikes on fixed objects, where the munitions can carry out a similar function to cruise missiles, but with machine discretion on the timing of attack. Accordingly, we can expect future LAWS – both munitions and platforms – to build on the current state of the art: to be more sophisticated with stronger artificial intelligence (AI) and automatic target recognition capabilities;112 and to have longer loit...