US developing AI artillery shells that DECIDE for themselves what targets to blow up after scanning ground below
THE Pentagon is ploughing tens of millions into developing highly-accurate artillery shells which can pick their own targets.
Military leaders say the AI-guided munitions will autonomously locate and destroy moving enemy tanks and armoured trucks.
The Cannon-Delivered Area Effects Munition (C-DAEM) system will phase out older weapons which currently leave behind unexploded "bomblets" on the battlefield.
It is designed to seek out targets even in situations where the GPS signals are jammed and where the enemy's exact location is unknown.
The C-DAEM system will be able to hit moving targets - something the current artillery shells just can’t do.
New Scientist reports: “The weapons will have a range of up to 60 kilometres...and will be able to search an area of more than 28 square kilometres for their targets.
"They will have a method for slowing down, such as a parachute or small wings, which they will use while scanning and classifying objects below.”
It's been reported the new state-of-the-art weapons system could be battle-ready as early as 2020.
The new shells are far removed from the (DPICM) artillery rounds which were introduced by the US Army in the 1980s.
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DPICM rounds are a single shell packed with dozens of tennis ball-sized grenades or bomblets.
They were designed to scatter the small bombs over vast areas of the battlefield - in a bid to hit as many targets as possible.
Although the bomblets were highly effective, they became a real danger to civilians long after wars were over.
Now top brass are to replace the outdated cluster bombs with an artillery round that intelligently seeks out enemy targets on its own.
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