The concern in the article seems to be such technologies can be dehumanizing... but we are literally talking about war here. Is shooting people with "robots" really any more dehumanizing than shooting them with missiles? Or even just guns? To me it seems like war is the dehumanizing factor.
Palestine is already a testing ground for small quadrocopters with rifles mounted to them. Reporters in the area have shared stories of these quadrocopters patrolling and shooting at anything that moves. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see other military robots tested there, it's a shooting gallery filled with people who can't fight back, and nobody cares about.
I would assume ukraine was the testing ground for small quadrocopters. At this point the world is way past the "testing" stage of small cheap drones in warfare.
