SWORDS Battle Bots Go Live In Iraq
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Sunday, 12 of August , 2007 at 12:58 pm
Now that Predator drones have been successfully armed with Hellfire missiles, it’s time for robots to get in on the ground war in Iraq. The SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation remote Reconnaissance Direct action System) robots are modified versions of TALON bomb disposal robots that have been used in Iraq for the past three years. They’re fast, rugged, reliable (more or less), and versatile. Each SWORDS bot has the capability to be armed with machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, and even anti-tank rockets. At this point, no AI is involved. The SWORDS is remote controlled from a mobile base station, relaying it’s point of view (complete with crosshairs) back to a soldier with a laptop and a trigger switch. Oh, and they also feature a kill switch, because sometimes the bots kinda go crazy. Not that that should scare you or anything.
So far, only three of the SWORDS robots are active in Iraq due to lack of funding, but I bet that’s going to change quickly as soon as they start getting results. After all, even if SWORDS bots aren’t cheap, they are replaceable. After the jump, check out a video of SWORDS in action, including a live fire test featuring the phrase “anything can happen when a robot is given a machine gun.”
[ TALON SWORDS ] VIA [ Danger Room ]
Category: Military
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