I mean, it would make sense, since they are wells of knowledge, and most were made to human proportions, so they would be capable of being in the role of a soldier.
Pre-crisis? I can see it. There must have been a reason to design the specialized units that ended up being the rank and file of the omnic rebellion, given that there are references to both the OR-14 and the Bastion units being designed by external companies rather than by whatever caused the crisis. A soldier that doesnāt get tired, doesnāt eat and never deviates from orders would certainly be appealing, and i have no doubt that armed forces across the globe would be willing to suplement their forces with omnics the same way modern armies are suplementing soldiers with drones and other equipment.
Post-crisis though? Not a snowballs chance in hell. The crisis exposed a critical systems vulnerability that means that omnics in any role could, at any time, be taken over and converted into a killing machine under the correct circumstances. I doubt any human commander would be willing to work even with minor civilian grade omnics after the catastrophic consequences of the crisis.
Most of the first omnic crisis omnic war bots were weaponised versions of peaceful āworkā bots. For example: Bastion design was created by Torbjorn but was edited and weaponised by Anubis AI to become a warbot. But then thereās omnics like Ramattra that were created by AI to lead less complex bots like Bastions, troopers etc into the wars. Not sure if theyāre being used for war now but the closest role Iāve seen so far is police man in France Zero Hour.
Are you sure about that? Because Bastionās official bio states that even pre-crisis bastion units were used for peacekeeping purposes and already designed for usage in that role, because they were built almost entirely around the ability to transform to use the rotary cannon.
The same goes for the OR-14 units. They were developed for security reasons, and were co-opted by the omnic forces when the crisis broke out because they were already built to fight.
They werenāt retrofitted for combat, they were designed for it explicitly. Which is probably why they ended up forming the rank and file of the crisis-era armies.
As for policing and such, I canāt say. Though I do note that in Zero Hour, while the omnic is dressed in a flack jacket, heās also appears conspicuously unarmed, while his human companion is wielding an assault rifle. Assuming these two are supposed to be partners (though they might have just met randomly in the chaos, who can say), it seems pretty telling the only one who gets a gun is the one made of flesh and blood.
That omnic seems to be wearing a bullet proof vest, while looking very civilian, and it made me think of the bullet proof vests journalists are wearing when they are reporting in warzones/dangerous zones.
And that āW24ā - it could be some news channel? IDK, we only know of Atlas News, but there should be other news media in the Overwatch universe.
Damn, thatās an brilliant explanation. I knew there was something off about them, and I couldnāt put my finger on it.
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there was an omnic with helix in one comic.
I think there is a high possibility.
We definitely know they are still used as security detail and as enforcers so it would make sense.
From the Overwatch fandom wiki with regards to Anubis AI escaping containment in the story Pharah: Mission Statement:
In response, HSI sent a team of engineers to regain control of the command center. After the team failed, a small military squad lead by captain Khalil was sent to deal with the AI. Anubis sent waves of robots against the team, managed to corrupt an omnic soldier within their ranks and kill their captain. Eventually, however, thanks to Tariqās plan, the team succeeded in incapacitating Anubis.
The soldier Omnic was named āOkoroā. Okoro worked for Helix which is a private security firm so technically not in the government military.
I mean, I wouldnt be surprised. Overall it would depend on how individual countries handle the omnics overall, like omnics serving in the british army in ow universe? unlikely, the british are still highly against omnics, but other ones? who knows