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Initially, pilots aboard the plane directed the missile, but halfway to its destination it severed communication with its operators. Alone, without human oversight, the missile decided which of three ships to attack, dropping to just above the sea surface and striking a 260-foot unmanned freighter.

The test was deemed a military success. But the design of this new missile and other weapons that can pick targets on their own has stirred protests from some analysts and scientists, who fear that an ethical boundary is being crossed.

Arms makers, they say, are taking the first steps toward developing robotic war machines that rely on software, not human instruction, to decide what to target and whom to kill. The speed at which these weapons calculate and move will make them increasingly difficult for humans to control, critics say — or to defend against.

And some scientists worry that with the aim of reducing indiscriminate killing and automating armed conflict, these weapons one day could make war more thinkable, even more likely.

Conventional drones are operated by remote pilots, and heat- and radar-seeking missiles are directed by humans. But now Britain, Israel and Norway are deploying missiles and drones that carry out attacks against enemy radar, tanks or ships without direct human control.

After launch, so-called autonomous weapons rely on artificial intelligence and their own sensors to select targets and to initiate an attack.

Britain’s “fire and forget” Brimstone missiles, for example, can distinguish between tanks and cars and buses without human assistance, and can hunt targets in a predesignated region without oversight. The Brimstones also communicate with one another, sharing their targets.