A new CNN article gives an overview of one robotics business that's booming (no pun intended) these days. President Bush is now spending more than $700,000,000 per day for war and weapons, so there's plenty of borrowed money in the budget for more war robots. There are currently more than 700 UAVs buzzing over Iraq alone. Another $12,000,000,000 in spending is planned for hundreds of new miltary robots over the next five years. Current plans for 2007 include six additional Global Hawks and 26 more Predators for the Air Force, four additional Fire Scouts for the Navy, 20 smaller UAVs such as Ravens for the Army. There will be further spending on ground robots such as the iRobot Packbot. It is believed there will be significant additional "hidden" spending on classified robot weapons as well. Ironically, a news item submitted by mmm.bbb today suggests that the Army will likely select Linux as the OS of choice for their Future Combat Systems program, potentially saving millions in license fees.