You call a vehicle a “soldier”? That is how we will fight wars on the future, at least as explained in the new technology of war, answering the question with battle footages, animation, live-action weapons testing and interviews with experts to examine everything from robot warriors to unmanned aerial vehicles. That is the trend. If we can deploy robots to wash our windows, or clean the floor, why not as a soldier? In fact, it has been tried already, those electronic objects deploying or searching for bombs. Right, we are talking about robots in warfare. Did you say we are in the age of the machines? Now this 6-wheeled soldier called MULE, multifunctional utility/ logistics and equipment, is not just unmanned while remotely controlled and armed with antitank or missiles, but it actually climbs over other vehicles to attack enemies. Could be deployed by the army by 2013.

If it’s bloody dogfights versus the Red Chinese over the Taiwan Strait that represent our Air Force’s future, then we’re probably right to invest so heavily in speedy, stealthy, expensive manned fighters — even if the budgetary picture for these airplanes looks worse by the day.
But if counter-insurgency fights are the way ahead, then maybe, just maybe, drone airplanes can rescue the Air Force from budgetary and obsolescence meltdown.