"Futurarmy soldiers will wait by their machines of war as these fantastic robot spies, called Owls, report on the location of enemy concentrations and installations."
While slightly different, this concept is very similar to drone surveillance widely used by the military today.
Aerial surveillance has been used since the Civil War when Thaddeus Lowe persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to use hot air balloons for reconnaissance.
Nowadays, unmanned aerial systems are often controlled by a remote operator that can see what's going on below, while also neutralizing threats with onboard missiles.
Rigg, however, did not seem to predict that a surveillance drone would also be armed.