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The shock warning of an impending World War 3 follows secretive developments by the military, who have suggested the deployment of the killer technology is "not far down the road".

The unprecedented technological development taking place across the world will unleash "widespread automated warfare" of genetically-engineered diseases and killer robots.

Russia and America are both "on the brink of a robotic arms race" according to leading experts in military warfare.

The shock warning of an impending World War 3 follows secretive developments by the military

'ROBOT bees could be used to KILL' like in Black Mirror, warns expert

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4's programme The End of Arms Control, defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus said: "Technology is marching on.

"Some like drones and cyber-attacks are already here. But others, like hypersonic missiles, killer robots and genetic weapons, are not that far off.

Kori Schake, the Deputy-Director General of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, warned: "We are on the threshold of a new age of warfare.

"This is comparable to the start of the nuclear weapons era. Technologies like unmanned systems, AI, robotics, they are all progressing at a gallop."

However, the most chilling warning came from Peter Singer, a specialist on 21st century warfare, who said that the technology, developed in secret by Russia and America, could soon be "widely available".

He listed a range of technologies that may soon cause widespread devastation, including diseases that are genetically-engineered in warfare labs.

Dr Singer also pointed to hypersonic weapons, recently unveiled by Russia, that travel faster than five times the speed of sound and which can move without detection from defence systems.