Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu’s deadly plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza, unmanned bulldozers to…, experts say…
Israel-Hamas war: Israel has employed various methods to weed out the Palestinian armed group Hamas over the course of the Israel-Hamas war in the embattled Gaza Strip, and now the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have deployed unmanned bulldozers in the war-torn city to prevent any casualties of its personnel.
IDF using unmanned bulldozers against Hamas
According to a report by the Times of Israel (TOI), the heavy machine, nicknamed the ‘Robodozer’, is a driverless, robotic version of the D9 bulldozer, and can be remotely operated from a good distance. IDF’s Robodozer is well-armored and hard to disable, and will prevent casualties of soldiers as it does not require a human driver to operate.
Developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, the Robodozer, which was displayed at a recent military exhibition in Alabama, United States, has been deployed in Gaza to raze Hamas bases, and is also being used by the IDF in Lebanon in a limited manner. As per defense experts, the Robodozer could change the course of the Israel-Hamas war as it is completely robotic and does not require human soldiers to enter the battlefield.
How IDF is using Robodozer?
The D9 bulldozer has been a staple of the Israeli army for years, and has been used to build roads, clear debris, and raze enemy sites. But the machine required a human operator whose life came under threat in case of an attack. The Robodozer nullifies that risk as it can be operated remotely, and used to demolish suspected Hamas hideouts in the Gaza Strip.
Experts are touting this robotic heavy machine as the future of unmanned warfare, but some have raised questions about how a remotely-operated machine is more prone to commit errors than a human operator. It could mistakenly target residential buildings resulting in deaths of civilians, resulting in a human rights crisis.
Robodozer ‘future of warfare’
According to Andrew Fox, a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London and retired Major of the British Army, IDF is the first to use remote-controlled machines and weapons on a large scale inside a warzone, and is taking a major chance on the Robodozer. But so far, there have no been no error on IDF’s part, and the machine has reduced mortal dangers to Israeli soldiers.
‘The use of unmanned weapons such as drones has increased in recent times, and now Israel has come up with a technology like the Robodozer, and although it has not been used directly in a war yet, it is clear that it is very unique and is the future of the battlefield,” says John Spencer of the Modern War Institute at West Point, US.
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