The autonomous part is troubling. People have been using drones to attack other people for over 5 years at least (I remember reading reports about the Taliban u

The autonomous part is troubling. People have been using drones to attack other people for over 5 years at least (I remember reading reports about the Taliban using drones in Afghanistan in 2015). The video on the STM site is kind of lame (it shows a drone detonating a cluster munition after homing in on a high contrast target with humans spaced around it. That isn't to say that is the limit of its capabilities but it doesn't inspire confidence either. All in all this has been a surprise to exactly nobody however. Given the cameras these things use are easily damaged by only moderately high powered lasers (like the ones used in laser light shows at rock concerts) I expect we'll see optical counter measures fairly quickly. Then there is the whole "emp gun" stuff that was being shown at the UAV conference in Las Vegas in 2018 to consider as well. All in all a sad step toward more varied ways of killing each other. Sigh.