They say that in major tank battles in the current paradigm of the Net-Centric Battlespace that once the battle begins the life expectancy of a tank and its crew is just around 2 minutes.
Of course with robotic weaponry there will be no humans in the tank, mobile missile launcher or border perimeter robotic sentry.
Still any nation investing is such high-tech war toys knows that they are very expensive and must have systems aboard to prevent their earlier destruction in the very first round of battle or the initial attack.
For such a piece of military hardware to survive it must remain undetected for as long as possible.
This means no heat, no electronic signature, no movement, no changes in terrain, which is easier said than done.
Indeed, we are asking these units to be invisible to all modern day sensors and also to the human eye.
Is this even possible? Well perhaps in the future some new materials will make some strike vehicles harder so see with the new robotic sensors.
But as these sensors also grow in ability and shrink in size the battle will be one by the team which identifies the enemy and fires first.
Now there is no guarantee that they will not return fire, but there is a really good chance they will no longer be amongst the living one you fire.
The question is once you fire, you have given away your position and once you are made, you are toast, so war on the ground at the speed of light will be the same as it always was; Kill or be Killed, that is the question.