Later this month, Russian will be able to show its military hardware to the world in a formal setting as it hosts the Army-2020 Forum. Billed as an International Military-Technical Forum, this event will take place at the Patriot Park, a military theme park opened in 2015 just at the outskirts of Moscow on the 23-29 August 2020, Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding. Russia has the fourth largest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world according to the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Dashboard.

At this event, Russia plans to showcase its armed robots, especially the Marker Robot in which it will do some firing tests to impress the attendees and show to the world that it’s planning to deploy armed robots alongside its infantry in future wars eventually having robots as frontline troops instead of humans.

A joint project of the Advanced Research Fund’s National Center for the Development of Technologies and Basic Robotics Elements and the Android Technology research and production association, the Marker Robot is said to be shoot at targets accurately than professional shooters and able to distinguish civilians from armed combatants though this claim still needs to be proven at a demonstration. Perhaps the demo at Army 2020 will dispel doubts on the capability of the robot.

Still, the having armed robots that can work autonomously or controlled by humans in the battlefield is a force multiplier as it can support infantry or conduct assaults on enemy soldiers that are hard to dislodge from their positions. It can do the most dangerous tasks in a mission and thus, can minimise the number of human casualties. Other countries are working on their armed robots including the U.S.

The question of armed and autonomous robot is still subject to debate amongst the robotics and AI (Artificial Intelligence) communities given that if AI robots might just refuse human instructions and can be existential threats to humans. If you follow the “Terminator” series, then you understand what I mean.

Final tests of the Marker robot is planned to be conducted next year and will be handed to the Russian Defense Ministry according to TASS. Below, is the news report by TASS on the upcoming firing tests at the Army-2020 Forum.

Russia’s Top Brass To Hold Firing Tests Of Latest Combat Robot
The robotic platform will be demonstrated at the Army-2020 international forum

MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Advanced Research Fund and the Defense Ministry of Russia will hold the trials of the Marker combat robot in August, Fund CEO Andrei Grigoryev told TASS on Thursday.

"Under the Marker project, a series of running and firing tests are planned in August. The trials will be conducted jointly with units of Russia’s Defense Ministry," the chief executive said.
The robotic platform will be demonstrated at the Army-2020 international military and technical forum, he said.

The Marker robotic platform is a joint project of the Advanced Research Fund’s National Center for the Development of Technologies and Basic Robotics Elements and the Android Technology research and production association (the developer of the Fedor humanoid robot). The new combat robot is expected to lay the basis for testing inter-operability of ground robots, unmanned aerial vehicles and Special Operations Forces.

The Marker is positioned as a building kit for creating models for future warfare.