Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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AKA: Arbeitskreis Physik und Abrüstung

AKA 2: Proliferation and its Containment

AKA 2.4: Talk

Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 18:30–19:00, H 0112

Uninhabited Combat Vehicles - the Next Arms Race? — •Jürgen Altmann — Experimentelle Physik III, TU Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund

Pilot-less aircraft for surveillance have been introduced by many armed forces. Qualitative change is to be expected if they are equipped with weapons. A first example is formed by the US Predator drone with Hellfire missile. The USA plans to have one third of its combat aircraft without pilot by 2010 and one third of its land-combat vehicles without crew by 2015. West European countries have development projects for pilot-less combat aircraft, too. For the near future, attacking a target is foreseen under remote control by a human - who is far away from the battlefield. Increasing capabilities for autonomous action and pressure to act fast can undermine this principle, however. Crisis stability can be threatened if potential opponents' autonomous weapon carriers will meet each other at short range. If unchecked by international limitation, a world-wide arms race at least in pilot-less combat aircraft is to be expected. The talk will present the status and trends in uninhabited military systems and discuss them under criteria of preventive arms control.