Robo warriors in Iraq

Telegraph:

American forces have deployed robots equipped with automatic weapons in Iraq, the first battlefield use of machines capable of waging war by remote control.

A US division of British defence company QinetiQ revealed that the 3rd Infantry Division, which is based south of Baghdad, purchased three Talon Sword robots for operations in Iraq.

Sword robots are a modified version of track-wheeled bomb disposal devices in use around the world.

Soldiers operate the robots with a specially modified laptop, complete with joystick controls and a ’kill button’ that terminates its functions if it goes awry.

According to the industry magazine, Defence News the US military has 80 remote controlled armoured robots on order but funding constraints has delayed delivery of all but a fraction of that number.

The devices are armed with M240 machine guns or .50 calibre rifles and are likely to be most valuable during in raids on suspected enemy compounds.

Commanders can minimise casualties by putting a machine in a situation where there is a high risk of an ambush or booby trap-style explosion.

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Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen constant technological innovation by the US military. Last month the US airforce displayed an unmanned drone, the Reaper, that is capable of dropping 1.5 tons of laser guided bombs.

Until recently the field of surveillance has seen the fastest spread of robots.

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I posted on the Sword last week but the Telegraph story adds some details to its capability. It still looks pretty primitive and may be vulnerable to RPG fire. On the other hand the enemy might have to expose himself to take a shot, giving the US forces a chance to take him on from an area that is covered. We are at the dawn of robotic weapon systems and I expect significant advancement in the coming years or even months.