Gen Collins, a top military commander, predicts that the British Army may employ robots on battlefields by 2030.
The senior officer wrote in the British Army Review that a robot should make initial contact with a potential opponent on the battlefield within seven years.
UK Seeks To Minimize Human Involvement
Such statements evoke images from the Hollywood blockbuster Terminator, in which autonomous machines waged war against the human species without mercy.
But, these concerns are no longer science fiction. Already, autonomous and semi-autonomous drones are employed in warfare to hunt, target, and kill humans.