סין הציגה כלבים רובוטיים עם רובים

Beijing's military is flexing something new in a recent drill. A robot dog with an automatic rifle on its back. It obeys its commander's orders to run and jump, and can even open fire on targets. But why create the armed robotic version of man's best friend? And how does the technology play into Beijing's military threat towards the West? Let's take a closer look. China's state media CCTV posted this video three days ago. It was taken during recent joint drills between China and Cambodia. A statement from a Chinese soldier, also published by CCTV, said the robot, quote, It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our human members to conduct reconnaissance and identify the enemy and strike the target. Military experts say robot dogs can significantly reduce risks for troops carrying out missions Worth noting, the U.S. and Japan first showcased this same kind of robot in the 90s. Beijing also revealed one of its first rifle-armed robot dogs last year. According to Chinese media, China's top institute, Tsinghua University, collaborated with the Chinese army to develop that technology. A number of countries accuse China of stealing intellectual property, especially from the Experts say Beijing's goal is to advance its military combat power. For many years, the CCP has been aware of the huge gaps between the U.S. military and its own militaries in traditional domains, such as ground, maritime, and air forces. It's hard for them to catch up quickly, so the CCP has consistently pursued advancement in emerging fields such as AI, new energy, unmanned devices, the cyberspace, and humanoid robots, aiming for an asymmetrical advantage. Since the starting point in these fields are relatively close, the CCP seized an opportunity to catch up with or even surpass the U.S. China announced a defense budget increase of over 7 percent two months ago. This comes after Beijing proposed an over 7 percent increase to military spending this year, totaling 220 billion dollars and making China's the second largest defense budget after the U.S. Beijing said last October that one of its goals is to mass-produce cutting-edge robots by 2025.