Robots are the future of warfare, General Mark Milley, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with Foreign Affairs.

“In the modern world, we are experiencing the most fundamental change in the nature of warfare ever seen in history.

First, you have precision-guided munitions and ubiquitous sensors. We can deliver long-range, targeted fire with greater accuracy and greater range than ever before in the history of mankind. And not only we, but also the Russians, and the Chinese, and other countries can do the same. 

But now, in addition to range and accuracy, you have the advent of hypersonic speed. A weapon that can move at speeds that today's defensive technology has no defense against.

There are also fundamental changes in the ability to see. Anyone who wears a Fitbit or GPS watch or runs with an iPhone is a sensor. It is a means of communication for most people. But for others, it may be a sensor, a tracker. So we have the ability to see the environment and pick up signals because there are so many electronic signals in the environment. 

We have the ability to see and feel this environment like never before.

But add to this the rapidly developing technologies of robotics - we already use robotics, UAVs. Now we are developing unmanned marine vehicles, both surface and underwater. 

We are experimenting with aircraft that will be unmanned. You will see unmanned tanks in the future. So robotics is infiltrating the military very quickly, much faster than people might think.

Add to this some other things, the most important of which is the ability to make decisions quickly and with great accuracy. Artificial intelligence and quantum computing combined with robotics will become the dominant factor in warfare. 

And a country that optimizes these technologies for warfare will have a decisive advantage, at least at the start of the next war,” Milley said.