Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14 — seriously:
We’re not used to thinking of them this way. But many advanced military weapons are essentially robotic — picking targets out automatically, slewing into position, and waiting only for a human to pull the trigger. Most of the time. Once in a while, though, these machines start firing mysteriously on their own. The South African National Defence Force “is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.”
[...]
The anti-aircraft weapon, an Oerlikon GDF-005, is designed to use passive and active radar, as well as laser range finders, to lock on to “high-speed, low-flying aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and cruise missiles.” In “automatic mode,” the weapon feeds targeting data from the fire control unit straight to the pair of 35mm guns, and reloads on its own when its emptied its magazine.
One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the robots will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new robot overlords.