Armed Robotic Systems Emergence

This important monograph focuses on the emergence of armed robotic systems on the early 21st- century battlefield and the new strategic realities that their fielding may entail. It utilizes a little known-yet decades old-weapons systems life cycle analytical approach, to place these warfighting technologies in a larger strategic context. This is provided by means of case studies focusing on the developmental progression of the knight from the 9th through the 16th century, the battleship from the 19th through the 20th century, and the tank from the 20th into the 21st century. This progression follows experimental, institutionalized, ritualized, and satirized life cycle phases in which a weapons system is first worked out for battlefield deployment, is then optimized as it matures, later becomes increasingly obsolete as it passes its prime, and finally is suicidal to use as advanced warfighting technologies move beyond it.