Special UN meeting urges stricter controls over killer robots

"Killer robots"- autonomous weapons systems that can identify and destroy targets in the absence of human control - should be strictly monitored to prevent violations of international or humanitarian law, nations from around the world demanded.

The European Union, France, Spain, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Croatia, Mexico and Sierra Leone, among other states, lined up at a special UN meeting in Geneva on Thursday to warn of the potential dangers of this rapidly advancing technology. Several countries spoke of the need to ensure that the weapons conformed to Geneva Conventions rules on proportionality in war.

The Spanish delegation went further, invoking the possibility of a new arms race as developed countries scrambled to get ahead. Ireland, the Netherlands and other countries called for "meaningful human control" of lethal weapons to be enshrined in international law, although the meeting also admitted that the precise definition of that principle had yet to be clarified.

The Geneva meeting was the second major gathering of world powers this year to discuss the looming threat or possibility of fully self-operating lethal weapons. As such, it was an indication of mounting global concern about the technology.

The United States, the leader in the field, has already switched most of its aerial surveillance capabilities to unmanned aircraft - though the drones are still controlled by human pilots. It is a natural next step for the US air force to develop systems that can both deliver and operate missiles and bombs robotically, with only minimal human intervention.

reported this week that Lockheed Martin had developed a long-range anti-ship missile for the US air force and navy that can fly itself, with no human touch, for hundreds of kilometres, changing its flight-path autonomously to avoid radar detection. Britain, Israel and Norway already carry out attacks on radar installations, tanks and ships using autonomous drones and missiles, the paper said.