PrairiePundit

Image via Wikipedia Rowan Scarborough: Insurgents in Afghanistan have changed tactics in how they place deadly improvised explosive devices ( IEDs ), prompting a war-veteran congressman to propose a relatively simple technique to find and detonate them. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Marine Corps reserve officer who saw combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, noted that Marines and soldiers are being maimed and killed by foot-deep pressure-activated mines. The Taliban is creating belts of such IEDs around villages that U.S. troops approach by foot. Mr. Hunter said the IED ring is a relatively new implement in the 10-year-old war. The enemy had put more focus on burying much larger explosives along roads to blow up armored vehicles and kill multiple troops in one blast. But in a cat-and-mouse contest, the U.S. became skilled at constantly monitoring roads using high-flying spy aircraft, spotting bomb placers and then calling in helicopter gunships to kill them. ... “What they’ve now done ...

San Antonio Express-News: The Army called it a “Robotics Rodeo,” but no urban cowboys rode a gyrating mechanical bull like the one at Gilley's, the legendary Houston-area honky-tonk. The idea was to save soldiers' lives by putting robotic tactical vehicles on the point in war, but its promise also brings pitfalls, as GIs saw while testing TerraMax, an automated truck system. Hands off the steering wheel, Noah Zych sat in the driver's seat of a heavy truck as it rolled down an oval road dotted by obstacles, one an Iraq-like village. It quickly picked up speed, reaching 40 mph, before slowing while navigating a bend in the road. A computer under the seat ran the truck though a seemingly flawless demonstration. But Fort Hood's chief, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, uttered an expletive after a soldier said in a debriefing later that day that TerraMax, made by Oskosh Corp., has slowed down after confusing dust clouds for obstacles. “We've all fought and we've lost friends o...

NY Times: ... As the mock attack began on the sprawling military base here, tiny drones hovered overhead, peering through the windows to see insurgents gathered inside the houses. Small robots — like R2-D2 in “Star Wars” — crawled through some of the doors, flashing back live video of the startled enemy’s positions. Electronic sensors placed nearby watched escape routes. And a battery of six-foot-high missiles stood at the ready farther out in the desert to destroy vehicles that tried to rush in to help the insurgents. “When I was in Iraq, we couldn’t see what we were busting into,” said Specialist Randall Thompson, who operates the robots. “But with this equipment, we can at least get a peek.” Army officials are trying to distance the relatively small-scale effort, which still faces some technical hurdles, from the shadow of a much broader program recently canceled that was to have created a truly modern military, with a new generation of combat vehicles and a vast wireless network. ...

The Israelis develop a battlefield snake robot: ... According to a Channel 2 report - click here to watch the clip - the spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer . Able to bend its joints so well that it can squeeze through very tight spaces, the new device will be used to find people buried under collapsed buildings. The snake is also able to arch its body, allowing it to see over obstacles through its head camera. ... It is an interesting application of robotics. The Israelis pioneered the use of UAVs and this application looks like it would be effective in urban warfare. It is another way to take away an enemy's asymmetric advantage.