The Australian Minister Of Defence, Greg Combet, has announced the launch of a competition which challenges scientists to come up with a robot that is capable of doing some of the army's 'dirty work' on the battlefield. There is US$1.6m allotted as prize money and to help the final few competitors to manufacture their prototypes, but you can make that billions if any of them show any promise whatsoever. This is being dressed up as a simple 'Australia is looking to advance technology' exercise, but it is much more than that. It is funded by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, a division of the Australian Department of Defence, along with the US Department of Defence. Imagine if it were the American's who were fronting this competition? That would sound a lot worse in the current global climate, and that is most probably why it is the peace-loving Aussies who are the face of it. This is effectively an X-Factor of sorts, only instead of trying to unearth vocal talents, this is set-up to weed out tech talent who may be useful to the industrial giants of the military world.

THE COMPETITION

The Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC) is described as a competition that aims to fill the technology gap on the battlefield. While various advanced armies around the globe use robots in combat - mostly for carrying added supplies and detonating landmines - none have been intelligent or versatile enough to do anything more than simple tasks. This competition aims to come up with a robot that can carry out "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions", so we are talking about something of a completely different nature here. It will need to be mobile and adaptable and it could possibly even support live ammunition. This is troubling because this seems to be a major step towards robotic soldiers appearing on the battlefield. This may not worry some people, but imagine in the future if the superpower of that time sent a couple of hundred thousand of these fella's over to invade your land? You will fight a hard war, and no matter what gains you make, you will not hurt your enemy, because they will simply manufacture more. No doubt this competition will spark much debate, but maybe that's the reason for it's inception. Maybe they are softening us up for what is already designed and built, and who better than our friends, the Aussies, to get the idea into the public domain?

REASONS FOR THE COMPETITION

I believe there to be two main reasons for this competition. To find scientists who may be of use to the military, and to soften us up to the idea of the military using robots during war. On the Australian Ministry of Defence website they say it is a joint venture with the US Department of Defence, but the mainstream papers are generally portraying it as a mainly Australian-initiated challenge and this says a lot. There would be a great public outburst right now if the US launched this as their project, that's for sure. The thought of the US having an army of robots to let loose at this point in history - especially during the last 8 years with the Bush administration in power - would be horrendous. Forget about shock and awe, this could be destruction on a scale which has never been seen before. And they wouldn't have to worry about public support at home due to the deaths of young American's in combat either. And let's not forget Bush had eight full years as president, in which time he could have possibly brought Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Afghanistan and others to their knees. If he could have achieved that, what would come next? We've got plenty of oil reserves off the coast of Ireland, so I for one would even be worried about our little island in the grand scheme of things, if the likes of dubya ever had soldiers of mass destruction.

THE PRIZE FUND

There is a budget of US$1.6m allotted overall. Five of the ten shortlisted groups or individuals will each receive US$100,000 to help build their prototypes, and the three top ranked, after the challenge is completed, will receive prizes of US$750,000, US$250,000 and US$100,000, money well-spent by the military powers and only a mere drop in the ocean for them. The closing date for entries is the 4th of September 2009, and the top 10 entrants will be notified on October the 19th and visited 'on-site' where their plans will be evaluated. Then in November the top five will be announced, which seems quite sudden, especially considering the competition has only been announced this month. These final five will then use their US$100,000 to build and develop their robots which will take part in a "Grand Challenge Event at undisclosed location in South Australia" a year later in November 2010. During that year between the shortlist announcement and completion of the competition (November 2009 to November 2010) they will be visited by the military on two more occasions to check the progress of their robots.

THEY WANT OUR BRIGHTEST YOUNG TALENT

This has been set-up to draw in university's and other groups of young science developers. It is a method of grabbing our best young talent, and their technologies, before they enter more worthwhile areas of science. Another worrisome aspect is that US and Australian military chiefs will visit these scientists and groups to evaluate what they are doing 'on-site'. What a way to get to know who is out there and to build a relationship with them too? And at a time when they need you more than you need them, because you are judging them afterall! And as for the short length of time which the entry phase of the competition is held over, that is another clever aspect of this talent-grab. If it gets bad press now, it will be out of the news by November 2009. The next public event should be November 2010 when the competition reaches it's conclusion, though that could go by un-noticed if they wish it to. There are no events during that 12 months that would create new news, but this may all be trivial. They may have already developed robot soldiers, and this may just be a softening of public opinion to the idea. You just never know when it concerns the most secretive industry on the planet, the military.