At present it is most common that wars are fought by using manned aircraft. This being said, we are also finding drones gaining in popularity. Drones are remotely piloted aircraft which are being used in wars to carry out different tasks without having a person present in the war zone. Apart from these remotely piloted drones, Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAVs) are also being introduced and used in wars. Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAVs) are completely computer driven and determine their own route, and require no assistance by a person on the ground actually controlling the plane. We are also finding AUAVs like this being armed with weapons, which are known as Armed Unmanned Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (AUAAVs). .
Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAV's) are used for spying over areas, and they are also used for targeting and gathering information about a certain target. On the other hand when we give these AUAV's weapons - therefore converting them into Armed Unmanned Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (AUAAV's) - we are therefore giving these AUAAVs the power of determining life or death for other human beings. When soldiers are fighting in a war, being human, they can easily choose the way they fight, and who they should or should not kill, all based on principles of morality. This ability to choose is known as Autonomy. On the other hand, Armed Unmanned Autonomous Aerial Vehicles are quite different. Although these war machines can make decisions, these decisions are all based on a set of rules which are then accomplished by the way the machine is programmed, by using different algorithms and "learning" over time using Artificial Intelligence or 'AI'. If we compare the soldiers to the AUAAVs, we see how the way a soldier decides to fight is different to the method with which an AUAAV comes up with its decision. This is because soldiers base their decisions on morality, making them agents of morality, while AUAAVs are not agents of morality.
