Robots will replace conventional soldiers on the battlefield in the future, says the Russian military’s tech chief.

“I see a greater robotization [of war], in fact, future warfare will involve operators and machines, not soldiers shooting at each other on the battlefield,” RT quoted Lieutenant General Andrey Grigoriev, the head of Russia’s Advanced Research Foundation (ARF), as saying on Wednesday.

Noting that days of conventional warfare are almost numbered, he stressed that the outcome of future wars would be determined by “powerful robot units fighting on land, in the air, at sea as well as underwater and in outer space.”

“They would be integrated into large comprehensive reconnaissance-strike systems,” said Grigoriev, adding, “The soldier would gradually turn into an operator and be removed from the battlefield.”

Last year, Grigoriev announced that Russian scientists had designed a robot “resembling a human in appearance” to operate in hostile environments. He added that the cyborg will be capable of running, jumping and even riding a motor cycle.

Russia’s United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC) also announced last year that it had developed the Unicum software package, which is capable of controlling up to 10 military robotic systems.

The package is capable of defining roles for the robots, allowing for a commander unit to distribute combat missions for each individual device.

In March 2016, Russia sent a squad of bomb disposal robots and experts to Syria to help with the defusing of explosive devices left by Daesh in the recently recaptured city of Palmyra.