Future of warfare? Russia’s deputy prime minister said that they now need gamers who play World of Tanks, an online war simulator, rather than regular tank drivers. Pictured above is an image from the online game
- Arms company said it is refitting iconic war machine to work remotely
- Drivers will be able to manoeuvre war machine from up to three miles away
- Russian deputy prime minister said future army will need to recruit gamers
- Named online game World of Tanks as possible recruiting tool for soldiers
Russia is to turn its famous T-90 tank into a robot – and wants the wars of the future to be fought by computer gamers.
A close ally of Vladimir Putin announced this week that the T-90 – a staple of Russia’s army with some 20 years of service – will be refitted so that it doesn’t need physical drivers.
Instead the tank will become the ground-based equivalent of a drone, controlled from a distance by operators in no physical danger.
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Writing on Twitter, Rogozin linked to a news piece about the T-90 conversion and said: ‘Now we don’t need tank drivers, but World of Tanks gamers’.
World of Tanks is a free-to-play online tank warfare game, which claims to have 75 million players.
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It is developed by Wargaming, a company based in the former Soviet territory of Belarus.
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The job of converting the tanks has been given to Uralvagonzavod, which manufactures a huge number of tanks for the Kremlin.
Senior executive Vyacheslav Khalitov said the company was ‘seriously engaged now in developing a remote control system based on existing models’ of tanks.
He said: ‘Why should we build a robot that will be less efficient on the battle field with weaker protection?
‘We have a ready-made product – the T-90 tank.
‘It’s not a problem to turn it into a robot. And it can be controlled from a distance’.
Full article: Russia has turned its T-90 tank into a robot – and plans to hire gamers to fight future wars (Daily Mail)
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