By Gerard du Cann
EXPERTS say future wars will be incomparable to even recent conflicts, and warn developed nations are poised on the precipice of the next arms race. This arms race is towards autonomous machines governed by artificial intelligence, and programs that could wipe out infrastructure with a single line of code. Today Russia unveiled a new plane that carries nuclear warheads with accuracy unsurpassed by any modern jet Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robots at the University of Sheffield, said any prospect of large armies meeting on a battlefield was gone. Wars of the future would look like one of two options: developed countries deploying autonomous weapons against each other, or, where developing countries were involved - insurgent warfare.
Any claim that AI weapons would shorten war or keep soldiers and civilians out of harms way were rubbish, Sharkey said.
"As it stands now when we leave a country we continue to keep drones flying overhead. If we have autonomous weapons we will just leave those there."
When it came to the idea of no longer sending young men to fight it would be a nice idea - but not a reality.
"Whenever we go into Baghdad and bomb the place to pieces and declare victory, does that mean the people you've conquered give up? No," Sharkey said.
"If the Irish robots beat the British robots would they give up? No, they would carry on ... There will be no human lives being saved here, I assure you."
The principal of force multiplication would also apply, and the runaway effect of a conflict between autonomous robots would be totally unpredictable.
"What happens when one swarm meets another? No one knows, it's like the wall street crash."
Russian military leaders have unveiled their secret state-of-the art robot army – which has an android gunslinger in its ranks.
"Who ever switches off first will lose."
Then there is the prospect of cyber warfare, and even after attending black ops and academic conferences, Sharkey said he still didn't fully grasp the potential of computer warfare.
"I don't even want to talk about it, it's so scary what they're talking about."
"We saw what happened when we started to see our hospitals being shut down by a small group, and that wasn't a state actor."
"People died as a result."
Financial infrastructure and food supply lines are just two of the systems - totally built on computers - that could be destroyed.
And forensic tracking of an attack is almost impossible with a state actor, he said.
It's not only academics making these claims.
Mid-2017, tech genius Elon Musk made headlines when he urged the United Nations to ban killer robots before the Terminator films become a dark reality.
Under the Geneva Conventions, human input is needed whenever military robots are used, since AI can't be trusted to pull the trigger.
But is the pushing of a button enough human input to justify the death and destruction modern war machines can inflict?
And these machines are being perfected across the land, sea and air.
Future of the air
Russia's unveiling to of a new AI-enhanced fighter jet equipped with missiles that fly at five times the speed of sound prove one thing - warfare has changed.
Any idea that future wars will bare any resemblance to World War II or even the Iraq war are rapidly becoming obsolete.
Russia are not the only country in this next-generation air arms race.
In July the UK unveiled the Tempest fighter jet - a steal bomber capable of flying with or without a pilot aboard.
Officials say that the Tempest will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure its weapons hit their targets.
When there is a pilot in the cockpit, they could also be in control of a swarm of military drones which would act as “unmanned wingmen”.
It's not only jets that have been making leaps and bounds.
As early as April China unveiled the new DF-26 nuclear missiles capable of travelling 2000 miles and sinking aircraft carriers.
Reports claim the missiles can also travel at supersonic speeds.
Future of the land
We may still be a few decades off a Terminator-style killer robot, but that hasn't stopped world powers from taking a stab.
The closest we have today is a Russian army android called FEDOR, who can drive a car, use tools and dual-wield handguns.
The sinister-looking bot was showcased early in 2017, when Putin's armed forces released a clip of the robot shooting two automatic pistols down a range.
Far more concerning is the rise in AI tanks.
Russia has already developed an unmanned tank called the BAS-01G Soratnik.
The machines is capable of operating autonomously and packs a machine gun and eight anti-tank missiles.
America has a version of their own, nicknamed "The Crusher".
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It's not only the offensive equipment that is taking leaps forward, defence is going the same way.
The Super aEgis II, a sentry gun capable of locking on to vehicles or humans from 3km away, is already deployed in theUAE, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the Korean Demilitarised Zone.
The sentry just needs a human to press the go button.
Early examples of automated patrol robots are also appearing.
The Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System (SWORDS) is essentially a remotely-controlled weapons platform capable of moving over any terrain.
Future of the sea
Battleships are always receiving new weapons - case in point China's railgun, which fires missiles at seven-times the speed of sound.
Aircraft carriers, Goliath capable of launching attacks from any of the worlds oceans, are also being built by more countries.
11 China's newest aircraft carrier, so far known only as Type 001A (CV-17), is a reverse-engineered and much more powerful version of its Soviet-built Liaoning Type 001
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