The U.S. Navy is in the process of developing armed robot submarines, which could theoretically be used to kill without direct human oversight.
The project is being developed by the Office of Naval Research under the name CLAWS, although it has not been made clear exactly what the acronym stands for. In budget documents, the autonomous underwater weapons system is described as being useful for increasing “mission areas into kinetic effects.” New Scientist, which was first to publish details of these documents, describes this as “military-speak for destroying things.”
CLAWS would not be a standalone vehicle. Instead, it would equip robot submarines with the necessary algorithms and smart sensors to be able to autonomously complete missions. This might include finding targets or evading attacks resulting from anti-submarine systems.
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