The Western media have started an anti-campaign for STM’s Kargu-2 drone. Human Rights Watch initiated the campaign three weeks ago. Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on governments to ban fully autonomous weapons. ICRC claimed that the Turkish-manufactured STM Kargu-2 loitering and the Harop developed by Israel Aerospace Industries were used for this purpose.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists used the article. They only mentioned STM’s Kargu-2 drone while Israel’s Harop was missing.
Since then, Western media started to use the UN claim that “military drones may have attacked humans for the first time.” According to a recent report by the UN Security Council, the Independent claims that “a military drone may have autonomously attacked humans for the first time without being instructed to do so.”
The paper brings the question of “whether global efforts to ban killer autonomous robots before they are built may be futile.”
“Logistics convoys and retreating HAF were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2,” the UN report noted.
Kargu is a “loitering” drone that uses machine learning-based object classification to select and engage targets, according to STM, and also has swarming capabilities to allow 20 drones to work together.
The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition.
KARGU is a rotary-wing attack drone that has been designed for asymmetric warfare or anti-terrorist operations. It can be carried by single personnel in both autonomous and manual modes. On autonomous mode, it has Autonomous Navigation and Control Algorithms.
The system is comprised of the “Rotary-Wing Combat UAV (UCAV)” and “Ground Control Unit” components.
The Kargu-2 drone is not fully autonomous, which means it does not decide about the target. The decision belongs to Ground Control Unit, operated by a human.
