ABSTRACT
Based upon a report originally undertaken in 2015 for the United Nations Agency for Disarmament Research (UNADIR), this chapter discusses a wide range of maritime and submersible robotics systems, many of which remained largely unfamiliar to both critics of military technology and the wider public (including delegates to the CCW) until quite recently. Even though such systems have until recently been far less discussed and studied than, for example, unpiloted aerial systems (drones) and ground-based systems, lethally armed remotely operated or uncrewed maritime systems are actually far more numerous and far more likely to be used routinely in the near future, especially in any emergent conflicts with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Transposition of some of the moral and legal challenges identified in earlier chapters into the maritime context, especially regarding armed conflict.
