Johnny 5 Goes to War

ORLANDO, Florida -- Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq -- all of that was just a start. Now, the Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns.
As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing. In a warren of hangar-sized hotel ballrooms in Orlando, military engineers this week showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the war zone. Wired Magazine

I agree with In The Bullpen's Blog in that these armed robots may be limited in vision, but the advantages of these things will be astounding. The ability to search a building and clear corners without risking American lives, commit initial assaults on enemy strongholds to weaken them without losing lives, or do initial recon on a war zone before sending troops in.

I just have to wonder what things will be like a few decades from now. I wonder if we will really have as many troops as we do now or at least troops that are in harms way in the traditional sense. What will war look like?