France Wants to Roll Out Robot Army by 2040

Though armed conflict is becoming increasingly rare as the decades go by, global military spending is rising sharply with each passing year, reaching unprecedented numbers in the history of warfare.

Much of that spending is fueled by the rise of the military tech industry. Between 2021 and 2023, venture capital firms pumped $100 billion into military tech startups in the US alone, hoping to snag lucrative contracts for everything from high-powered counter-UAV systems to deadly drone swarms.

With so many startups and defense conglomerates pitching all kinds of buzzy hardware, it's getting pretty difficult to predict what the future of warfare is going to look like.

That isn't stopping countries like France from taking a guess, however. General Bruno Baratz, commander of future combat programs for the French Army, recently announced the country's intent to deploy robot warriors to the front lines as soon as 2028.

"We hope to have something fairly evolved within three years, with the first ground robot capabilities ready to equip our forces," Baratz said at a military robotics exercise near Paris.

Baratz added that the French government anticipates "deploying evolved systems with practical utility to our combat elements well ahead of 2040," referencing a target date for robot deployment set back in 2021. That decision was part of a call by French military leaders to prepare for "high-intensity warfare" by upgrading equipment, increasing army reserves, outsourcing to private contractors, and investing in high-tech drone and robotics programs.

At the military robotics trials, Barrons reports that unmanned units sporting legs, treads, and wheels navigated obstacles and dodged traps meant to emulate battlefield conditions. The French army anticipates deploying the robo-units for a range of tasks, from surveillance to remote repair work to mine clearing.

"Now we need to prove [the robots] can be more effective when they come into contact with an adversary," said French general Tony Maffeis, head of the army's technical branch. "The robot must facilitate combat, not hold it back."

Though France points to the Russian-Ukraine war as a reason to embrace high-tech hardware, president Emmanuel Macron recently affirmed that France would not be sending troops to the conflict — raising the important question of what, exactly, its robot army will be used for.

The European superpower is currently withdrawing troops from deployments in formerly colonized African countries like Chad, Niger, and Burkina Faso, which some critics warn is a smokescreen for France to return to the kinds of covert schemes its military has come to be known for across the continent.

France has previously employed tactics like economic warfare in Guinea, drone espionage in the Central African Republic, and high-tech arms transfers to the oil-rich nation of Guyana, to name a few.

It's anyone's guess how France will deploy its cutting-edge military tech going forward, but it's hard to imagine it'll be sitting in a warehouse gathering dust.

More on military robots: Senior Pentagon Official: New Plan Is to Invest in "Autonomous Killer Robots"