16 Mar 08 Americas Robot Army

A great article in ‘Popular Mechanics’ on the use of Robots within the US Army, and a preview of what we could expect to see in the field within the next five years.

Last June the Army deployed the first-ever armed UGVs. Three SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Remote Direct-Action System) robots landed in Iraq, each equipped with an M249 light machine gun. These UGVs are essentially guns on tracks, a variant of the remote-control Talon bots routinely blown up while investigating improvised explosive devices. When the trio was approved for combat duty, the potential for historic robot-versus-human carnage lit up the blogosphere. Never mind the dozens of air-to-ground Hellfire missiles that have already been launched by a squadron of armed Predator drones over the past seven years—this was a robot soldier, packing the same machine gun used by ground troops.

Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4252643.html?page=1

Tags: army, Robots, war