Aryan

'Robot soldiers' bound for Iraq

The US military is planning to deploy robots armed with machine-guns to wage war against insurgents in Iraq.

Eighteen of the 1m-high robots, equipped with cameras and operated by remote control, are going to Iraq this spring, the Associated Press reports.

The machine is based on a robot already used by the military to disable bombs.

Officials say the robot warrior is fast, accurate and will track and attack the enemy with relatively little risk to the lives of US soldiers.

Unlike its human counterparts, the armed robot does not require food, clothing, training, motivation or a pension.

When not needed in war, it can be mothballed in a warehouse.

However, the robot will rely on its human operator, remotely studying footage from its cameras, for the order to open fire.

According to Bob Quinn, a manager with Foster-Miller, the US-based company which worked with the military to develop the robot, the only difference for a soldier is that "his weapon is not at his shoulder, it's up to half a mile away".

Test of metal

The robot fighter has been christened Swords, after the acronym for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems.


Robot soldier
Can be fitted with standard-issue M249 or M240 rifle
Has four cameras, night-vision and zoom lenses
Can travel over rocks and barbed wire
Batteries run for up to 4 hours at a time
Remote control unit has two joysticks and video screen
Costs $200,000 (£106,757) per unit

It is based on the Talon robot, which is widely used by the military to disarm bombs.

A US officer who helped test the robot said it was a more accurate shot than the average soldier because it is mounted on a stable platform and takes aim electronically.

"It eliminates the majority of shooting errors you have," said Staff Sgt Santiago Tordillos.

Mr Quinn says there are plans to replace the computer screen, joysticks and keypad in the remote-control unit with a Gameboy-style controller and virtual-reality goggles.

The Foster-Miller company is owned by the QinetiQ Group, a joint venture between the UK's Ministry of Defence and US-based holding company, Carlyle Group.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...as/4199935.stm

Leader

Cool.

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Confed999

Good news...

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Major_Armstrong

A terminator for terrorists. Excellent. The dead terrorists probably still consider themselves to be martyrs, since the robot is remote controlled by an infidel.

Julie

LOL..probably.

Rahul

Cool. Should be interesting to see how it does.

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Am out of town for a while and then have tons of work coming up at school. Will be back once that's all done.

dalem

Mmmm, robot machinegunners and Hellfire-launching UAVs. I can't think of a more appropriate way to give terrorists and other martyroids the bird.

"You're not even important enough for me to kill you in person."

I love it.

-dale

bonehead

I'd love it if the robot could say "Who's your daddy?" when it bust through the enemies headquarters.

Four hours does not sound like a long run time though.

Franco Lolan

200,000 dollars each!
not very easy to defend either

Aryan

Isn't this bad news? Once the technology becomes cheap enough, whats going to happen to the soldiers, they are all going to loose their jobs and pensions...

dalem

Use the trick from RAH's Starship Troopers novel: A grenade that has a recording that states "I am a 30 second bomb!" and then begins to count down.

-dale

Bluesman

Put me out of business...I need to go make some money, anyway.

And at $200,000, it's cheaper by far than a servicemember's life insurance policy.

Buy 'em, field 'em, perfect 'em, buy the latest model, repeat.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Hawk_eye

Yep, i read about them on nanotech magazine: http://www.foster-miller.com/lemming.htm.

Quite intresting!

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Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a [person] does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses their intelligence.
--Albert Einstein