Autonomous Weapons Systems in Africa::   Emerging Realities, Prospects, and Risks

Samuel  Oyewole; Christopher  Isike; Tony  Oche; Ezenwa E. Olumba

doi:10.1080/19361610.2025.2501055

Autonomous Weapons Systems in Africa: Emerging Realities, Prospects, and Risks

Samuel Oyewole
, Christopher Isike
, Tony Oche
, Ezenwa E. Olumba

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (SciVal)

20 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

There are inadequate African perspectives on the development, adoption, testing, deployment, and utilization of (lethal) autonomous weapons systems (L/AWS) by African countries or foreign military powers on the continent. Accordingly, this article explores the emerging trend of AWS in Africa, its potential military and strategic benefits, and the risks for the continent. Using content analysis of publicly available data and structural phenomenological analysis of formal and informal engagements with some stakeholders, the article examines the emerging realities of AWS in Africa, including local production, capacity building, foreign procurement, testing, deployment, and operations of weapons with autonomous features. L/AWS has the potential to boost intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, precision, and effectiveness of coercive operations, and minimize military casualties and operational cost of troubled African countries. Nevertheless, the risks posed to human rights, democracy, national security and sovereignty, and regional stability by AWS adoption and deployment in Africa cannot be ignored. Hence, this article advocates for a cost-benefit approach to AWS adoption and deployment in Africa.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	603-628
Number of pages	26
Journal	Journal of Applied Security Research
Volume	20
Issue number	4
Early online date	12 May 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/19361610.2025.2501055
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 12 May 2025

Bibliographical note

(c) 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent

Keywords

Africa
Artificial intelligence
autonomous weapons systems
military
security

Access to Document

10.1080/19361610.2025.2501055Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Autonomous Weapons Systems in Africa Emerging Realities Prospects and Risks
(c) 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent
Final published version, 1.21 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Autonomous Weapons Systems in Africa:: Emerging Realities, Prospects, and Risks",

abstract = "There are inadequate African perspectives on the development, adoption, testing, deployment, and utilization of (lethal) autonomous weapons systems (L/AWS) by African countries or foreign military powers on the continent. Accordingly, this article explores the emerging trend of AWS in Africa, its potential military and strategic benefits, and the risks for the continent. Using content analysis of publicly available data and structural phenomenological analysis of formal and informal engagements with some stakeholders, the article examines the emerging realities of AWS in Africa, including local production, capacity building, foreign procurement, testing, deployment, and operations of weapons with autonomous features. L/AWS has the potential to boost intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, precision, and effectiveness of coercive operations, and minimize military casualties and operational cost of troubled African countries. Nevertheless, the risks posed to human rights, democracy, national security and sovereignty, and regional stability by AWS adoption and deployment in Africa cannot be ignored. Hence, this article advocates for a cost-benefit approach to AWS adoption and deployment in Africa.",

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N1 - (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent

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N2 - There are inadequate African perspectives on the development, adoption, testing, deployment, and utilization of (lethal) autonomous weapons systems (L/AWS) by African countries or foreign military powers on the continent. Accordingly, this article explores the emerging trend of AWS in Africa, its potential military and strategic benefits, and the risks for the continent. Using content analysis of publicly available data and structural phenomenological analysis of formal and informal engagements with some stakeholders, the article examines the emerging realities of AWS in Africa, including local production, capacity building, foreign procurement, testing, deployment, and operations of weapons with autonomous features. L/AWS has the potential to boost intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, precision, and effectiveness of coercive operations, and minimize military casualties and operational cost of troubled African countries. Nevertheless, the risks posed to human rights, democracy, national security and sovereignty, and regional stability by AWS adoption and deployment in Africa cannot be ignored. Hence, this article advocates for a cost-benefit approach to AWS adoption and deployment in Africa.

AB - There are inadequate African perspectives on the development, adoption, testing, deployment, and utilization of (lethal) autonomous weapons systems (L/AWS) by African countries or foreign military powers on the continent. Accordingly, this article explores the emerging trend of AWS in Africa, its potential military and strategic benefits, and the risks for the continent. Using content analysis of publicly available data and structural phenomenological analysis of formal and informal engagements with some stakeholders, the article examines the emerging realities of AWS in Africa, including local production, capacity building, foreign procurement, testing, deployment, and operations of weapons with autonomous features. L/AWS has the potential to boost intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, precision, and effectiveness of coercive operations, and minimize military casualties and operational cost of troubled African countries. Nevertheless, the risks posed to human rights, democracy, national security and sovereignty, and regional stability by AWS adoption and deployment in Africa cannot be ignored. Hence, this article advocates for a cost-benefit approach to AWS adoption and deployment in Africa.

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