At first glance, there is nothing unusual about the bulky bulldozer turning up soil at a testing site in central Israel, but as it pulled closer it became clear: the driver’s cabin is eerily empty.
This is the Robdozer, a fortified engineering vehicle manned remotely, and in this case operated from a military expo halfway across the globe in Alabama.
Army engineers and military experts say that the Robdozer — the robotic version of Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozer — is the future of automated combat.
The Israeli military has used D9 for years to carry out frontline tasks like troweling roads for advancing troops, removing rubble and flattening terrain, but since war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, and later in Lebanon, the Israeli military has increasingly deployed this robotic version in a bid to enhance its field operations and reduce the risks to its troops.
“The idea is to eliminate the person from the cockpit of the dozer,” said Rani, whose team at the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries developed the Robdozer.
During the Gaza war, the military has increasingly opted for the unmanned version, which can carry out a full range of tasks “even better than a human,” said Rani, using his first name only for security reasons.
An engineer of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) explains how unmanned D9 military bulldozers operate during a demonstration to the press in a field near Tel Aviv on March 26, 2025. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
While such vehicles and other systems are currently operated by humans, future versions could be autonomous, raising ethical and legal concerns over the unchartered future of warfare being shaped by the Israeli military in the Gaza war.
‘Changing the paradigm’
Israel’s increasing use of advanced technology on the battlefield, from air defense systems to a broad range of AI-driven intelligence tools, has been well-documented but also criticized for inaccuracies, lack of human oversight and potential violations of international law.
Analysts say the growing Israeli deployment of the Robdozer reflects broader global trends toward automation in heavy combat vehicles, like remote-controlled personnel carriers that operate much like drones.
An Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or drone) flies over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 3, 2024, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the terror group Hamas. (AFP)
An Israeli military official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that the army has been using “robotic tools for over a decade, but in very small numbers. Now it is being used in large-scale warfare.”
Troops can now operate machinery without having to enter enemy territory, said the official.
Andrew Fox, a retired British army major and a research fellow at the London-based Henry Jackson Society, said the Israeli military was likely the first force to use remote-controlled combat machinery in an active war zone.
“It’s a really big development” that is “changing the paradigm” of warfare, carrying out tasks as effectively but at a far reduced risk to personnel, he said.
A new era of war
“This is the future,” said John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the US military’s Modern War Institute at West Point.
Many “have been experimenting with it, but nobody has seen direct deployment into active modern combat,” he added. “It is very unique.”
But beyond ethical and legal drawbacks to such advanced technology, there is also the need for an overriding human presence to make decisions particularly in unusual situations.
The October 7, 2023, attack — when some Hamas terrorists breached the high-security border to invade southern Israel, where it killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, starting the Gaza war — was a disastrous example for that, said Tal Mimran of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Gazans celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the broken Israel-Gaza border fence, east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP/Yousef Masoud)
“I think that October 7 showed us that you can build a wall that may cost $1 billion, but if you do not patrol the border, then someone will infiltrate your country,” said Mimran, a lecturer and researcher of international law who has been closely following the Israeli military’s technological developments.
“We must take note of the opportunities and of the risks of technology,” he said. “This is the era in which artificial intelligence is exploding into our lives, and it is only natural that it will also have a manifestation in the security field.”
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