My honest opinion would be that people unnecessarily put too much faith in these machines (wet themselves silly i say). I have some arguments in support for that.
For all we know there could be a virtual wall as to how much we could achieve with robots, for all we know they might never progress past artificial intelligence which operates on mechanical knowledge(which is notoriously bad in dynamic situations as it fails to adapt), then there is the fact that much of the modern machinery operates on thermal imagery, which has its limits,
https://www.oathkeepers.org/defeating-drones-how-to-build-a-thermal-evasion-suit/
interesting article that, a point to be considered that barely literate afghan militiamen put an extra blanket over themselves to evade american multi million drones, i am sure that someone with more education and need can top that.
Then there is the hearts and minds strategy, case in point would be that american drones in afghanistan couldnt do half as much damage as the Brits did in malay to the communists(re: the malayan emergency).
Then there is the argument that of the technological race, as in one builds something the other builds something to top it off and even the most advanced technology is susceptible to hacking, sure you can use them against the afghani militiamen to somewhat of an affect but against a technologically sound adversary? can you trust them enough that they wont get hacked and turn their guns on friendlies? i wouldnt and no one should
The phrase that the greatest weapon is the human mind is true and nothing can top that beast, nothing beats good old fashioned human ingenuity and experience(afghani militiamen and blankets).
The grunt isnt going anywhere i say