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ANYONE who thinks robot warfare is science fiction should talk to my plumber. His cousin got into the US Air Force Academy, but isn鈥檛 aiming to be a top gun. Instead, the cadet is training to fly remotely controlled robotic aircraft from the safety of a chair, far from enemy fire. The plumber considers that a smart move; fighter pilots can get killed.

If you want the whole story of remote warfare, pick up a copy of Wired for War, in which , a fellow of the non-profit Brookings Institution in Washington DC, exhaustively documents the Pentagon鈥檚 penchant for robotics. Think of it as the next step in the mechanisation of war: swords and arrows, guns, artillery, rockets, bombers, robots. In fact, robotics is not a new passion. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan talked of building a fleet of robotic battle satellites that could automatically destroy Soviet nuclear missiles before they reached US targets.

Now, robotic systems are being used for real. Unmanned aerial vehicles such as the aptly named fly reconnaissance missions in the Middle East. If they spot 鈥渂ad guys鈥�, they can mark them with laser bullseyes that 鈥渟mart鈥� bombs can target. On the ground, wheeled robots go places too dangerous for soldiers, checking for hidden insurgents and defusing the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which have taken a heavy toll in Iraq. Field troops are enthusiastic, too, reporting that robots save lives. And the US navy sports autonomous undersea vehicles that can be programmed to spend hours searching underwater.

So what鈥檚 not to like about turning war over to the robots? For starters, people are sure to get in the way, and robots sometimes pick the wrong targets. Singer cites a chilling example from 1988, when the high-tech radar on the USS Vincennes mistook an Iranian airliner for an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet coming in for an attack. The ship鈥檚 crew shot it down, killing 290 civilians. Even soldiers can have a hard time sorting the insurgents from the civilians; spread autonomous robots around and deadly encounters on a smaller scale could become daily tragedies. But the greatest danger is that turning battles over to the robots could give the illusion that wars can be won with little human cost, encouraging high-tech powers to launch wars on whims.

Singer鈥檚 book examines robotic warfare, its origins and consequences. Its 436 pages are rich with food for thought, such as a section on the role of sci-fi in inspiring military planners, but it is also overflowing with details 鈥� a few of them questionable 鈥� which blunt Singer鈥檚 points and make the book drag. Military robotics are important, but bloat hurts an otherwise good book.