End of the road for India's army mules as AI units get to work

After almost two centuries of providing critical logistic backup to soldiers in forbidding and desolate terrain, including in the two World Wars, the Indian army's mule trains are being retired and replaced with artificial intelligence-enabled robots, as part of the military's modernisation. Categorised as Quadrupedal Unmanned Ground Vehicles, these robots have already begun providing soldiers’ rations, fuel, medicines, ammunition and sundry supplies in challenging environments in the northern Himalayan regions and in the jungles of northeastern India, bordering Myanmar. The recent announcement by army headquarters in New Delhi of the imminent retirement of some 4,000 mules evoked wistfulness among serving…