Motley Fool analyst Blake Bos discusses the implication of reports that conclude the cost of robots may be less than the cost of humans in battle.

Blake compares the cost of maintaining a soldier in Afghanistan to that of a battle robot and points to the F-35 fighter program as an example of how expensive manned programs have become.

In the video below, Blake observes how smaller companies like iRobot (IRBT 2.23%) and AeroVironment (AVAV 5.73%), as well as huge defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin  (LMT -0.27%) and Northrop Grumman (NOC 0.79%), are positioned to benefit from this trend.