Israel is developing robots — as small as flies — that can identify and exterminate terrorist leaders. General Robotics Ltd., a Tel Aviv-based firm engaged in the development and manufacturing of advanced robotic platforms for the Defense and Homeland Security markets, has developed the world’s first lightweight armed tactical combat robot called DOGO — for close-quarter urban combat, surveillance, and SWAT-type counterterrorism missions.
DOGO can operate for four hours at a stretch in the most dangerous urban or underground combat zones on fully-charged batteries. It can climb stairs, clear obstacles, and even fire a standard 9mm Glock 26 pistol tied to its belly.
Alternately DOGO can use pepper spray, or other less lethal means of engagement that can stun and temporarily blind a target 5-10 meters away and a two-way communication system allowing the operator to listen and intervene in hostage situations.
Each DOGO has eight video cameras that provide 360° vision and the ability to accurately aim and fire 14 fully loaded cartridges, with a remotely controlled safe/arm mechanism. The Robot is controlled by the ‘Ranger’ Remote Control Unit (RCU) which allows the remote controller to ‘Point & Shoot’ by touching a target on the screen. DOGO’s movements and weaponry, are controlled by a person using a hand-held device. The 10-kilogram robot is operational in Israel, India, and France.
Israel’s secret service allegedly assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a prominent Iranian scientist who was allegedly the head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program in November 2020, using a satellite-controlled machine gun, operated about a thousand miles away from Israel. Curiously the scientist traveling in a moving car was killed while his wife only 10 inches away escaped unhurt.
The attack was carried out by a remote-controlled machine gun “equipped with an intelligent satellite system” using artificial intelligence. The entire operation lasted less than a minute and some fifteen bullets were fired.
The National Security Guard (NSG) or Black Cats commandoes, specially trained to tackle all forms of terrorism, hijackings; bomb disposal; post-blast investigation, and hostage rescue missions use DOGO Robots for room intervention and Anti- hijacking operations in India.
Rashtriya Rifles has also projected the requirement to deploy armed robots during counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir.
According to defence analysts, using robots for surveillance will provide real-time intelligence inputs in built-up areas where terrorists are hiding and prevent casualties during cordon-and-search operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian security forces are in particular looking for anti-terrorist robots with surveillance cameras with day and night vision and range between 150 – 200 meters for dynamic real-time monitoring of terrorist activities. These robots can be easily operated using a remote control to identify and kill terrorists hiding behind walls in built-up areas. The main objective behind designing these robots is to assign them tasks that are too dangerous and minimize human casualties in terrorist attacks. Wireless cameras fitted to these robots can send real-time audio and video signals to the control room where the operator can decide the next action to be taken.
These types of robots were used in Afghanistan and Iraq to defuse landmines, search for criminals hiding in caves, as well as search for bombs under cars and in buildings. When they are surrounded by lot of terrorists or the situation is too difficult for them to control these robots are programmed to blast themselves killing all the terrorists in the vicinity.
Significantly the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has developed India’s first anti-terror robot called ‘Daksha’ for anti-terrorist activities. ‘Daksha’ is a battery-operated robot that can be controlled from a distance of 500 meters and can work continuously for 3 hours after a single recharge. About 500 ‘Daksha’ robots are going to be included in the Indian Army soon.
‘Daksha’ is primarily designed for the safe handling and destruction or detection of IEDs using multiple cameras, and X-ray devices. It can also break closed doors and scan cars for explosives using the scanner installed on it. ‘Daksha’ carries a shotgun, and can be made to detect IEDs and other explosive elements controlled by wireless or fiber optic communication.
DRDO’s Research and Development Establishment (R&DE) is developing the Daksha robot in collaboration with Tata Motors, Theta Controls, Bharat Electronics (BE), and Dynalog (I).
Some of the key features of Daksha include:
- It is fully automatic
- It can destroy biological, chemical, and radiological weapons.
- It has a radio frequency shield that can jam the signal and prevent it from exploding.
- It can detect any suspicious luggage at the airport and destroy it by taking it out of the airport or away from the crowd.
- It can lift any object with the help of its robotic arm. If, it is IED or bomb; then it can diffuse it with its water jet disrupter.
- It has X-ray devices that can scan any car/vehicle for explosive materials.
- It also has slotted wheels, which help it in climbing the stairs at the time of requirements.
Daksha can prove to be a valuable asset for the army’s bomb disposal units in anti-terrorist operations and save the lives of many Indian soldiers from IED blasts while patrolling in the border areas.
But the moot question is – what happens if these anti-terrorist robots land up in the hands of terrorists?
It is a well-known fact that many terrorist and insurgent groups are already using hi-tech weapons. Hence, the day is not far when a number of technology-savvy terrorist groups acquire or develop lethal weapons, or “killer robots,” to dramatically increase their capacity to create terror.
A case in point is how two drones dropped an IED packed with high grade-explosives on an Indian Air Force base in Jammu in 2021. One of the IEDs blew a big hole in a building and landed inside while the other dropped a few yards away, injuring two IAF personnel. It was the first-ever drone attack in India by tech-savvy terrorists.
A swarm of 13 crudely made aircraft, powered by small gas engines to drop bombs packed with pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PTN) a highly explosive organic compound (C5H8N4O12) belonging to the nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose family attacked a Russian army base at Khmeimim and naval base at Tartus on the Syrian coast. The low-flying drones with deadly PETN explosives and shrapnel secured to their wings managed to confuse the Russian air defense systems by approaching the targets at different angles and altitudes.
In another such incident Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro reportedly survived an assassination attempt when drones armed with explosives detonated overhead while he was making a speech at a military event. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores are understood to have looked up at the sky and gasped after hearing the explosion in which seven people were injured.
Similarly, a small quadcopter operated by an unidentified federal government employee crashed on the White House lawn in 2015. Though the drone was reportedly being flown only for recreational purpose, the fact that it managed to penetrate the high-security airspace in the USA clearly shows how vulnerable even the most secure buildings are to drone attacks all over the world.
In 2001 Osama bin Laden considered using remote-control airplanes packed with explosives to kill President George W. Bush and other heads of state at the G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy.
In June 2002, the Reuters news agency reported that al Qaeda was planning to attack passenger aircraft using model airplanes.
The writing on the wall is clear – drones and artificial intelligence is no longer an exclusive domain for the conventional security forces but have become a cheaper and versatile tool in the hands of terrorist and would continue to play a greater role in the future as well.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a key United Nations body for delivering counter-terrorism legal and related technical assistance –various terrorist groups are using the internet for six overlapping functions namely: propaganda (including recruitment, radicalization, and incitement to terrorism); financing; training; planning (including through secret communication and open-source information); execution; and cyber-attacks.
Various terrorist groups today are using drones to conduct and coordinate attacks. A particularly frightening application of drones is the distribution of chemical and biological agents, especially infectious diseases. Especially in the post-COVID era the fear of infectious disease is so prevalent that terrorists do not even have to use an actual biological or chemical weapon, as merely spraying water or some other household cleaning agent in a crowded area would be enough to create panic.
In the past, terrorist groups required highly trained and motivated individuals to carry out big attacks like Indira Gandhi Assassination, Rajiv Gandhi Assassination, President Jayewardene Assassination in Sri Lanka, or for that matter the 9/11 attacks. There were big risks involved and fewer chances of success. Many times the key members taking part in the attack had to sacrifice themselves, either by being caught or killed. Today, however, AI-enabled killer robots, drones, and remote-controlled weapons have made it easy for even individuals or small groups can conduct many such attacks without self-sacrifice.
AI is expected to open floodgates for terrorist groups to spread terror and make it extremely difficult to detect them. According to analysts, in the not-too-distant future, terrorists will be able to conduct rapid, coordinated attacks, and these attacks will cause far more damage. Also, the attackers will be farther away from the targets both in time and location. Last but not the least, these AI-powered slaughterbots are likely to cost little more than a smartphone.
According to counter-terrorism experts, terrorist groups will eventually like to own these autonomous weapons for three reasons — cost, traceability, and effectiveness. The killer robots will eventually make terrorist strikes cost-effective, cheap, and minimize the human investment required while maximizing the damage done by a single person.
Above all, the use of autonomous weapons will reduce the trace left by terrorists while at the same time magnifying the damage done by a small number of people operating from a considerably safe distance from the target. In other words, all that needs to be done to assassinate a politician… is to upload their photo and without further human intervention leave it to the killer robot to fly to the destination, identify and eliminate the person, and self-destruct itself. This way nobody will ever come to know who the dramatis persona – behind the scene was.
-The writer is a seasoned media professional with over three decades of experience in print, electronic, and web media. He is presently Editor of Taazakhabar News
–The writer is a seasoned media professional with over three decades of experience in print, electronic, and web media. He is presently Editor of Taazakhabar News. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
