One obstacle to the deployment of MAARS, and armed unmanned ground vehicles in general, is the reluctance of military leaders to utilize remote-controlled weapon systems at ground level. One concern is collateral damage, as 7.62 NATO bullets fired by the machine gun can travel further than sensors mounted on the robot. The Defense Department is in agreement that any lethal force applied by an unmanned system will be decided by an individual, not by the system autonomously. Ground combat commanders prefer to perfect autonomy for UGVs for supply purposes to lighten infantrymens' loads. Autonomous ground robots that could shoot have been compared to land mines, in that they can't be directly controlled. Although remote weapon systems have been successfully used on vehicles, there is question on how far a remote-controlled platform can be stretched, from a guard tower for perimeter defense or through a mobile platform. SWORDS robots deployed to Iraq were placed in fixed locations and behind sandbags, as senior officials were not comfortable using them to seek out and shoot enemy combatants. QinetiQ North America has said that despite press reports claiming that SWORDS was only there briefly, they were deployed for six years and performed the combat role of serving the protection of a site. The Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning asked for a demonstration of MAARS in fall 2013, and the Marine Corps is continuing to investigate the possibility of employing it as well.Army and Marines: Leave the Shooting to Humans - Defensetech.org, 14 August 2013Future of Armed Ground Robots in Combat Still Debated - Nationaldefensemagazine.org, 15 August 2013 Army officers hope to use armed ground robots as part of an infantry squad, rather than a substitute for them. They plan to have an armed system in use by 2018.Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years - Wired.com, 18 October 2013
