The Middle East is on the brink of a regional war as the world awaits Israel’s retaliation strike against Iran. President Biden, on Thursday morning, told reporters he was in talks with Israel about possibly striking Iran’s oil facilities. He said, “We’re discussing that.” 

It’s really not hard to imagine if conflict broadens into a regional shitstorm—the modern battlefield would be like the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game. Just this week, Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic ones.

These are our hypersonic systems, catch them if you can! pic.twitter.com/VrIZsNcW25

— Iran Military (@IRIran_Military) October 1, 2024

Iran-backed terror organizations around Israel have recently launched countless loitering munitions, or “kamikaze drones,” attacks on the country and commercial shipping in the maritime chokepoint of the Southern Red Sea.  

🇾🇪 Yemen shows the Jaffa drone that targeted an “important site” in Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/QV6dtxkUXA

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) July 23, 2024

The newest tech entering the battlefield, already present in Eastern Europe but now being trialed in the Middle East, is armed robot dogs equipped with artificial intelligence, high-tech sensors, and rifles.

An image posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service shows a Robotics Vision 60 Quadrupedal-Unmanned Ground Vehicle, or Q-UGV, armed with what appears to be a main battlefield utilizing an M4/M16 platform. 

In mid-September, the Q-UGV was featured in a field training exercise at the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia. 

A US Army Central spokesman told Military.com that the armed Q-UGV was tested with several “non-counter-sUAS” systems alongside 15 counter-drone platforms at Red Sands. These ‘Skynet’- like weapons of war “engaged several static ground targets,” the military news website said. 

Beyond Red Sands, the US Army has been trialing armed robo dogs elsewhere. 

⚡️During exercises, the 🇺🇸US Army tested a “robot dog” with artificial intelligence armed with an AR-15 rifle to destroy drones. https://t.co/XQC7XGOMgs pic.twitter.com/E1EPFPF5k0

— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) August 10, 2024

These robo-dogs have been observed on the battlefields in Eastern Europe. 

⚡️A 🇬🇧British robot dog in use by the 🇺🇦Ukrainian military from the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade pic.twitter.com/iAu8j9krmx

— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) August 15, 2024

Ukrainian Army reconnaissance robot dog actual combat videopic.twitter.com/lgZn6hM7QN
乌军侦察机器狗实战视频

— 番外联邦 FANWAI 🇺🇦 (@dsbxtw9991) August 5, 2024

The Communist Party of China has fallen in love with these ‘Skynet’ dogs. 

China Shows Off Its Robot Dog Army: Chinese military robots equipped with a variety of weapons, including rifles, grenade launchers and flamethrowers. pic.twitter.com/PY91rF2Egr

— nikola 3 (@ronin19217435) June 2, 2024

This excerpt from a video of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) shows a robot dog equipped with a machine gun operating in what is reportedly a series of military drills between China and Cambodia. pic.twitter.com/ECKJ1oqkmE

— Bharat Now (@BharatNow) May 27, 2024

This excerpt from a video of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) shows a soldier walking with a robot dog equipped with a machine gun. The video is reportedly from military drills between China and Cambodia.pic.twitter.com/WOFcAY5RlA

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 25, 2024

Even delivered by drone. 

Delivery of the robot dog to the positions by the heavy drone “Vampire”. pic.twitter.com/ZLRH0mx1R8

— ✙△ Albina Fella △✙🇺🇦🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇵🇱🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺 (@albafella1) September 23, 2024

The French. 

The French army is testing Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot in combat scenarios https://t.co/JCC661QKYI pic.twitter.com/hWt6kn4L1J

— The Verge (@verge) April 8, 2021

All the bat-shit-crazy military tech we’ve covered in the last fifteen years is being deployed on the modern battlefield as WW3 risks remain elevated.