---
title: "Top General Says “Robot Soldiers” Could Make Up 25 Percent of British Army"
description: "A top British general speculated that in the 2030s, robot soldiers could make up as much as a quarter of the British army."
date: "2020-11-09"
modified: "2020-11-09"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/general-robot-soldiers-percent-british-army"
categories:
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "military technology"
  - "robot soldier"
  - "the digest"
---

# Top General Says “Robot Soldiers” Could Make Up 25 Percent of British Army

![A top British general speculated that in the 2030s, robot soldiers could make up as much as a quarter of the British army.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/general-robot-soldiers-percent-british-army.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: British Army\</em\>*

## BattleBots

Over the next decades, the British army may enlist tens of thousands of [robotic soldiers](<https://futurism.com/russia-ground-force-armed-military-robots>).

General Nick Carter, chief of defense staff for the British army, suggests that new drones and robots could make up a significant fraction of the armed forces, *[The Guardian](<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/08/third-world-war-a-risk-in-wake-of-covid-pandemic-says-uk-defence-chief>)*[ reports](<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/08/third-world-war-a-risk-in-wake-of-covid-pandemic-says-uk-defence-chief>). Part of the plan is to compensate for a drop in the number of human recruits — but, at the same time, Carter admits that the future of robotic warfare is hazy.

## Terminator

Carter said that a massive push for a robotic military, in which large numbers of autonomous or remote-controlled robotic soldiers replace human fighters, could be operational by the 2030s, according to *The Guardian*.

"I mean, I suspect we could have an army of 120,000, of which 30,000 might be robots, who knows," Carter said, later clarifying that he wasn't committing to any specific numbers.

## First Steps

Every branch of the British military is already experimenting with military drones, *The Guardian* reports, [like the i9](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/uk-military-drone-double-barreled-shotgun>) — a rotorcraft equipped with two shotguns — that's meant to be piloted into hostile buildings.

But even so, Carter warns that a future including automated warfare is a future in which wars could accidentally begin based on one error — he warned about "escalation \[leading\] to miscalculation."

"I'm saying it's a risk and we need to be conscious of those risks," he told the *Guardian*.

**READ MORE:** ['Robot soldiers could make up quarter of British army by 2030s'](<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/08/third-world-war-a-risk-in-wake-of-covid-pandemic-says-uk-defence-chief>) \[*The Guardian*\]

**More on robot soldiers:** *[UK Military Develops Drone With a Double Barreled Shotgun](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/uk-military-drone-double-barreled-shotgun>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)