Robots!

Check out David Axe’s video series on military robots at GOOD magazine. It’s a good overview for anyone interested in unmanned systems, autonomous and tele-operated. Note: would have liked if he mentioned other “robot” systems (by his implicit definition) such as Patriot to AEGIS that had notable accidental kills: an allied pilot and a civilian airliner, respectively.

Think the U.S. is the only country with robots? Lots of other countries are deploying unmanned systems, like Pakistan. From Danger Room:

“Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters use not just mobile and satellite phones for communication, but also sophisticated military radios,” Defense News notes. So companies like East West Infiniti are building SIGINT [signals intelligence] for small drones and robotic blimps, to capture those conversations.

  • Site note: Whenever I post on robots, hits from China, Singapore, Korea, Pakistan, and Indonesia spike.

Robot Grunts

Quick Note on the remote and unattended combat front: More Robot Grunts Ready for Duty.

Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq all of that was just a start. Now, the Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they’ll be carrying guns.