consequence of mass produced robotic infantry to human infantry ?

Marnuplee

Well-known member
In this hypothetical scenario, robotic infantry that are stronger than humans, have durability that is stronger than bulletproof armor, can differentiate between enemies from civilians, and have the ability to use any kind of weapon are mass produced. Furthermore, they can withstand basic to medium EMP attacks, have a protective firewall to safeguard against all types of enemy hackers, scan people for investigations/patrols, and can only talk to human troops, commanders, and elites if they are on their side or on the field with them. But the robots are slower than a human soldier, heavier, can't think outside of the box, and still need to receive orders from human personnel. The militaries could connect the robots to a system of VR systems for soldiers to give control of the robots if the armies wanted to. These new robots get integrated into militaries around the world. The question I'm asking is: What would happen to the human troops that enlisted in the military?
 

Free-Stater 101

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In this hypothetical scenario, robotic infantry that are stronger than humans, have durability that is stronger than bulletproof armor, can differentiate between enemies from civilians, and have the ability to use any kind of weapon are mass produced. Furthermore, they can withstand basic to medium EMP attacks, have a protective firewall to safeguard against all types of enemy hackers, scan people for investigations/patrols, and can only talk to human troops, commanders, and elites if they are on their side or on the field with them. But the robots are slower than a human soldier, heavier, can't think outside of the box, and still need to receive orders from human personnel. The militaries could connect the robots to a system of VR systems for soldiers to give control of the robots if the armies wanted to. These new robots get integrated into militaries around the world. The question I'm asking is: What would happen to the human troops that enlisted in the military?
The real question is how expensive are they?
 

UltimatePaladin

Well-known member
Human infantry would probably end up getting re-trained. EIther as special forces or drone "sergeants."

To expand on the latter - a force of humans + drones will end up beating a pure human or pure drone force, all other things being equal. A pure human force would be at a disadvantage against the heavier armor and heavier weapons (due to increased strength) of the drones. A pure drone force would be more vulnerable to being out-thought or at least out-maneuvered by human opponents with their faster speed.

Hence, a combination of the two. The humans would provide the drones with the insight to prevent being out-thought. The drones would, in turn, provide heavier firepower and more durable combatants.

You would also see drones singled out for specific purposes. For example, drones may get placed on guard duty more often (because they don't get tired or bored. Out-thought, perhaps, but they'll always be as attentive as they can be.) Or, when breaching structures they're always going to be the ones in front. Or, the first in front in general. Losing soldiers is a tragedy - losing drones is an annoyance.
 

CarlManvers2019

Writers Blocked Douchebag
as expensive as the spare part. extra gear or weapons cost same as if it was human infantry.

virtually immune to small arms weapons.

Then I expect other nations to start building them soon, though the poorer the nation, the poorer the quality and quantity

And it'll be more noticeable as to who/when/where they're being, especially if resources are tracked
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
Humans become obsolete on the battlefield, they are remain in support functions and as robot overseers.
 

ATP

Well-known member
If we have that kind of technology,then we could turn people into cyber zombies,too.Just remove brain,add computers/few in entire body/ and you have cheap infrantry.
And you could use captured enemy for that,too.
Disgusting,immoral,but at least China and Russia would certainly use that.
 

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
Every last one of them fall to a certain Jedi. :devilish: 😀
But on a real tip they have one big glaring weak point. They need fuel and power in the same way Human infantry need food and water. Even these death machines will have to be properly fueled in the field.
 

IceWing_mk1

Well-known member
Honestly, I think the bigger problem here is that it's a lot easier to deploy forces into foreign territory, and there is less public pressure to get out of conflicts.
 

Val the Moofia Boss

Well-known member
It sounds like the robots aren't intelligent, but must instead be piloted/controlled by an operator away from the battlefield. Which means that there are two major handicaps:
  • Each robot requires a human to operate, meaning you can realistically only field as many robots as you have operators. You're not going to have ludicrously large robot armies like in Star Wars.
  • The robots have a time delay because the robot's sensors have to receive info, then transmit that info to the operator's machine, and then then that is outputted to the operator's display. Then the operator has to do something, which again has the same time delay to travel back to the robot. And that's not even getting into the physical capabilities of the robot. No robot will be able to make split second dodges, or snipe a guy who was out of cover for a fraction of a second.
Given point no. 2 especially, I'm not too sure about the practicalities of the robots. Modern combat doctrine is to have your infantry take cover, and keep the enemy pinned down with suppressing fire until your airforce arrives to blow them up. Infantry are only really useful for 1. occupying territory, and 2. clearing out dense urban environments in which you don't want to blow stuff up. The robots suck for both. The robots are going to terrify the populace, and unlike real people, the robots don't have the sense or the capabilities to really help them out. The other problem is that - given the time delay - the robots are going to easily get jumped on in a dense environment with lots of places to hide. Sure, at least you're not losing real people, but you're not actually getting the job done either.

Honestly the robots would probably better used for stuff like clearing minefields, or going into a nuclear facility that is on meltdown trying to fix the situation. They're only really useful in a non-combat situation and when you're not interacting with people but don't want to risk real people for.
 

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
It wholly depends on the general technological context. All we know, the coming technological context would send drones (at least, those that aren't bodies for AGIs anyway) to the trash bin of history as much as allow it to dominate the war space. There are just too many variables here.
 

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