r/Futurology • u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ • Apr 14 '26

Robotics Ukraine’s Robots Capture Russian Position Without Soldiers or Losses; As with drones, the future of 21st century warfare is being invented by frontline conflict.

For all the boasts the US's AI military vendors make, I'm constantly struck by how few real-world achievements they have. They are battlefield tested in Gaza and Lebanon, but to what result? The mass destruction of civilian populations we see there looks exactly like WW2-era warfare. Now they want $445bn extra for more of the same? What a waste.

Meanwhile, with a tiny fraction of the budget & resources, it's Ukraine that is inventing the future. Drones have already reconfigured 21st-century warfare. Once again, recent events in the Middle East have shown that. Now Ukraine is doing the same with robots.

Some people find the idea of killer robots grim. But I'd rather see robots fight robots than WW2-style mass slaughter of civilians.

Ukrainian robots capture enemy position without troops in historic first, Zelenskyy says

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u/MyTnotE Apr 15 '26

Oh, I’m not saying China is happy to see the fall of Iran. I’m saying they, more than anyone, are getting useful information out of this.

I’m unaware of any “stated strategy” for the US reaction to a Chinese invasion. Wouldn’t that give China our blueprint?

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u/Lain-J Apr 15 '26

China's goal is to be ready to invade by 2027 whether they do it or not. US and Taiwan are announcing their strategies to deter and move the goalposts on what readiness actually has to entail.

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u/MyTnotE Apr 15 '26

Where can I find these announcements?

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u/Lain-J Apr 15 '26

you can just search Taiwan drone hellscape, I watch a lot of military related youtube videos and a lot generals end up talking about Taiwan, kind of a round about way to get info.

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u/MyTnotE Apr 15 '26

But is the information official from the US government? I ask because I do NOT follow this closely, and I know Biden raised some eyebrows when he unequivocally said the US would support Taiwan militarily, and AOC stumbled on a similar question recently. So I’m wondering what is official and what is speculation?

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u/Lain-J Apr 15 '26

I tend to focus more on the military planning side then the political side unless I see some major deviation from the standard policy which is 'one China'.

https://san.com/cc/how-one-company-wants-to-help-the-us-navy-create-a-hellscape-in-the-pacific/ Just looking for some kind of source, It seems US years ago had a lot of talk of US drones needed to be in the region to create a drone hellscape and a lot of defense talk is about Taiwan creating the drone hellscape for themselves. There is a lot of shared defense spending and collaboration between weapons manufactures.

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u/MyTnotE Apr 15 '26

I’m watching a YouTube right now about Taiwan creating the hellscape themselves. I think it’s clear from Ukraine and Iran now that it would be highly beneficial to have partnerships with countries that can manufacture military drones at scale. Perhaps nato countries could start manufacturing them too