Army Prepares 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq

[Rose Siding]

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. -- The rain is turning to snow on a blustery January morning, and all the men gathered in a parking lot here surely would prefer to be inside. But the weather couldn't matter less to the robotic sharpshooter they are here to watch as it splashes through puddles, the barrel of its machine gun pointing the way like Pinocchio's nose.

The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April.

Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp.
...
"It's important to stress that not everything has to be super high tech," said Sebasto. "You can integrate existing componentry and create a revolutionary capability."
The SWORDS in the parking lot at the headquarters of the cable news station CNBC had just finished showing off for the cameras, climbing stairs, scooting between cubicles, even broadcasting some of its video on the air.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-gunslinging-robot,0,6305806.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[thedailyshow]

1. an RPG would finish that off easily

[Jack_DeLeon]

17. well...

RPGs can finish off lots of things quite easily, obviously humans are among those things.

Better a robot than a human.

[hector459]

37. So Iraq is now become the laboratory for modern weapontry

how else will we know if our weapons are lethal enough? Just as we tested the atomic bomb on Japan.

[Julius Civitatus]

53. Yes. Here are some photos of this aberration

Sad. They truly are using Iraq as a training ground to test new weapons, from Moabs, to "new napalm," to depleted uranium. There's no end in sight to the suffering of these people. They went from the opression of Saddam to this.

Now Rumsfeld and the neocons are going to use these little robots that make war even less humane, more of a video-game. It even removes the guilt and remorse from from shooting civilians! See where this is leading?

Welcome to the Matrix:







http://springfield.news-leader.com/business/today/0123-Gunslingin-285627.html

[Kitsune]

2. Uhhh....

Bad idea?

[dethl]

3. Luckily its not fully autonomous....yet

eom

[Up2Late]

4. Did these people learn NOTHING from "Terminator?"

Did they even watch it. I wonder it "they" will send a Terminator 3000 back to kill the California "Govenator?" :dunce::silly:

Folk, I think we have here the plot for "Terminator 4!" :toast:

[parkia00]

5. Sitting duck!

That thing would make a perfect target practice platform for the rebels! Compare the maneuverability of a pair of insurgents armed with an RPG on rough terrain, over rubble and in an enclosed area. Compare visibility of your eyes right now as you use it normallycompared to trying to walk while looking through a short tube. The operator will have limited vision.

[cliss]

6. Don't tell me....let me guess

RumsFailed is behind this. I know that he's tried to "modernize" the armed forces. He knows full well that a 21-year old Marine coming from a soft consumer culture is no match for a hardened, 35-year old mujahedeen who has grown up with deprivation.

Since RumsFool went to war with the army he had, not the one he wishes he had, he opted for expensive war toys. The cost has been staggering: untold billions have been spent on making technology that would replace the immature 20-year old American standing there with a weapon in his hand.

There are 3 problems that I can see with trying to do something like this:

1) the costs are enormous. Think of the R & D (Research & Development) that would go into making into stuff like this. There are a lot of contractors on the Pentagon gravy train, so they will jack up the costs even more, at the taxpayer's expense.

2) the time factor. A lot of this stuff hasn't been tested very much. In other words, they're using Iraq as a guinea pig for testing their new weapons. They could backfire, killing hundreds of innocent Iraqis, or they would even end up killing Americans. And think of the glee an Iraqi would have, as he points an old kalashnikov rifle at a drone, and blows it to smithereens. Not all the vulnerabilities would be known.

3) most important reason: technology CANNOT replace quick thinking, good judgement and intelligence in the military leadership. It siimply CAN'T. I don't care how sophisticated the gadgetry is. In the case of Goliath, David can still nail him.

[SouthernDem2004]

18. This stff is not new...

They have been working on this stuff for decades. They have been spending money on R&D and testing for some time. Bet you did not know the Abrams Tank can aim its own gun....

[MADem]

49. Yep....

I can remember when pilots were SCREAMING that there HAD to be humans in the cockpit. Then, remotely piloted vehicle pilots did some work over Kosovo, and got air medals without even being over the targets.

Now the UAVs and Global Hawks are part of the arsenal, all those complaints about drones not cutting it are a thing of the past.

They need to work harder on the full body armor, though. They've been working that forever, and they aren't making enough progress, IMHO.

And they need to bring our kids home.

I'm all for technology being developed to ensure the national defense, in fact, I think it is a fair expenditure of money. It's so unfortunate that we do not work hard enough at this shit when we are at peace, and end up throwing all kinds of crap up against the wall to see if it sticks during wartime.

Yeah, Iraq is a war lab, no doubt about it...

[oscar111]

27. but MACHINE WAVE, like HUMAN WAVE assaults, can beat any human

sure, a human is more agile, better eyes, etc.

but a hundred of these machines will overload that human.

So, mass production makes the machines cheap , cheaper than the cost of feeding and training a soldier.

Once cheap enough, field a hundred machines to each opponent.

PS tiny machines the size of a fly would get into opponent hideouts and televise useful info.

Future war seems to favor those with factories.

Corporation owners just shipped most of our factories overseas, right? Our engineers have lost their skills while doing their new job at McDonalds, right?

India, china, europe {GERMANY} and indonesia now have the world's sharp engineers, right?

Perhaps we need tarrifs to get back our factories.

[flamingpie2500]

7. CARLYLE group!! I am so damned tired of the Bushes profitting from this

war!! UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

[norml]

16. It's yet another Carlyle Group connection.

It was a joint development process between the Army and Foster-Miller, a robotics firm bought in November by QinetiQ Group PLC, which is a partnership between the British Ministry of Defence and the Washington holding company The Carlyle Group.
http://www.thecarlylegroup.com

[cosmicdot]

55. QinetiQ's Board of Directors includes a Carlyle Board member ...

http://www.qinetiq.com/home/about_qinetiq/leadership_team/qinetiq_holdings_ltd.html

Sir Denys Henderson
Non-executive Director
A member of Carlyle's Board, Sir Denys Henderson has recently retired from his role as Chairman and First Commissioner of The Crown Estate. Sir Denys has extensive experience in a number of high profile companies. Previously, Sir Denys served as Chairman of the Rank Group, formerly The Rank Organisation plc. From 1957 to 1995, he was with Imperial Chemical Industries plc, serving as its Chairman from 1987 until 1995. He was also Chairman of Zeneca.

`````````````````````````````
sitting on QinetiQ's Board of Directors is:

Glenn Youngkin is a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and he is based at the firm's London office. He moved to London with his family three years after having led some of Carlyle's most successful investments in the US, including EG&G, Lear Sieglar and a joint venture with Cadbury-Schweppes to establish the Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group.

Prior to joining Carlyle in August 1995, Glenn was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he worked on a variety of strategic and operating issues in the energy, consumer product and healthcare industries. Prior to joining McKinsey, Glenn was with CS First Boston's Natural Resource Group, where he structured and executed both Mergers and Acquisitions and capital market financings.

Glenn is a graduate of Rice University and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He sits on the boards of EMPI, Imagitas and Kuhlman Electric.

````````````````````````````````````

Colin Balmer
Non-executive Director
Colin has been the Managing Director of the Cabinet Office since July 2003. Prior to that he was the MOD's Finance Director and was responsible for the vesting of QinetiQ and the subsequent PPP Transaction with Carlyle. His main responsibility at the MOD was the planning and management of the defence programme with an annual budget of £32bn. He had extensive experience across the Department including periods as Private Secretary to two Ministers for Defence Procurement, a secondment to the UK Delegation to NATO and as Minister for Defence Materiel in Washington. Colin is also a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Audit Risk Committee.

`````````````````````````````````````

has there ever been more outrageous profiteering by a former president ... with on-going inside help to boot?

robots will further desensitize humans from the horror, suffering and brutality of war ... the robots won't have any war stories to tell the grandchildren ...

and, Iraqis get the test drive ...

how much of the BILLIONS are finding their way into The Carlyle Group ... and, war profiteering is only some eggs in its basket ...

[Kitsune]

8. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I know what's behind this.

Recruitment.

Look! If you join now, you can probably get a job operating this thing instead of actually going to Iraq! ZOMG ITS COUNTERSTRIKE!!111one :o :o

This thing just seems too expensive and too prone to failure (BZZT BZZT *opens fire on a crowd*) to be anything more than a PR/Recruitment stunt.


....also, I'm pretty sure 'componentry' isn't a word.

[Rose Siding]

9. Also

fewer eywitnesses to atrocities.

[Obviousman]

10. Oh, so Arnold enlisted

[vogonjiltz]

11. The Daleks are Comming

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:nkq2iznZg8YJ:blogs.salon.com/0001444/images/2003/08/11/daleks.jpg

[vogonjiltz]

12. dag nt

[VegasWolf]

13. State of the art artificial intelligence says this thing will shoot

up the wrong targets. Tough to program what to look for
especially in a war situation. bush's robots. I almost
fell out of my chair laughing.

[oneold1-4u]

14. Smarter than loss of life

Logic of some kind will have to be used eventually to gain any advantage of a battle. An old man walking around a neighborhood with a few cameras (with film or not) brought a heavy drug manufacturing and sales community quickly under control. Paranoia and fear has a way of backfiring. Buyers didn't want their auto licenses on film, and no one wanted their pics possibly taken, even from a distance. "No business" meant moving out or going broke! There is generally more than one way to accomplish an action with a lesser cost.(life)
If sending every remote toy donated out of every American home to Iraq, for the soldiers to gain any advantage for their lives, I would be the first to start the drive for donations!
We are gaining more and more safety and security with cameras here. By this time they should have been able to make Islamics around the world believe that we at least had a picture of most of them without hoods!

[highnooner]

15. The military wanted a proving ground for new technology

George found it for them.

[Cocoa]

19. total ripoff

[SmokingJacket]

20. Remote control killing is cowardly.

I'm so fucking ashamed of this country.

[Tacos al Carbon]

40. So, you favor only hand to hand combat?

No Tanks, no snipers, no airplanes, no guns, right? Because all of those kill remotely. Bows should also be a no-no, as well as slings. Yeah, let's nominate you for SOD.

[Erika]

21. This makes my blood run cold

No-risk war except to those who disagree with neocon U.S. policy.

[Streetdoc270]

22. Its this that makes War too easy

'Military officials like to compare the roughly three-foot-high robots favorably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.'


When you make war 'easy' or 'sanitized' you loose the horror of why wars should be avoided. Death and destruction and sacrifice is what makes war bad. This is why we as Americians have no problems with the neverending 'war' on terriorism. As a whole americans are not asked to give up anything, we have our normal lives untouched by the horrors of combat, we see new movies, drive our large cars, spend on luxury items, and watch hollywood give out awards and wonder how long 'The Donald' will stay married this time. We have not been asked to give anything of ourselves (exception of military families) so the prospect of war oversees does not trouble the 'average' american.

[bobthedrummer]

23. The neo-conservative traitors are invested in these private military

companies (PMC's) like Dyn Corp, Vinnell, Titan, CACI, Blackwater etc. that are developing adjuncts to the "fungible" troops:grr::puke::argh:

[Chicago Democrat]

24. Its the future folks....

You meat creatures are inferior to the machines

[daleo]

25. Who says there won't be knock-offs of these in a few years

Imagine one of these let loose in an American mall by some future enemy. All weapons look good as long as only you have them.

[Cronus Protagonist]

26. Throw a blanket over it and point it backwards

That's how Doctor Who would beat the Daleks. Problem solved.




http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[daleo]

28. They claim this thing can climb stairs.

That seemed to stump the Daleks for the longest time.

Eventually, the Daleks seemed to go for a short flight when there were stairs. I wonder how this thing does it, and how well?

[oscar111]

29. helicopter robos would climb stairs faster than humans

and also rise to tenth story windows and enter.

small robos would do all that. carrying a pistol, i assume.

Just have the engineer add a pistol to existing radio control helicopters. Cost for existing ones around a hundred or two, i think. Could be done overnight.

Send a swarm of them into Mosul, and they would be effective.

[BeHereNow]

30. Yeah, but can they inflict torture?

Not to worry folks, we will still have
jobs for uneducated and impoverished young
people because as of this time, the robots
have not yet been programmed for torturing
civilian detainees.
Uncle Sam will still need YOU for that!
This way to your local
recruiting station, freepers and fundies.
If you do well in our global gulag torture
facilities, we MIGHT let you play with
the remote control for one of these "soldiers"
and guess what? Machines can't be
prosecuted for war crimes!
See, they've thought of everything!
"Well your honor, the fundie freeper soldier
didn't ACTUALLY shoot those civilians, the robot did it..."
GEEZ, WHEN will this madness end?
We are stuck inside a Twilight Zone marathon...
it just gets weirder and weirder.

Stop the world, I want to get off now.
BHN

[Bariztr]

31. No way

Not Robosapien he couldn't hurt a fly.

[R Hickey]

32. Can the Chinese produce these killer-robots at Wal-Mart prices?

How much will the Chinese charge us for these robots, and how cheaply will they make their knockoff's for?

If these killer-robots cost two million dollars each here, manufactured by Bush-owned companies, what will China charge per copy? One thousand each?

Perhaps we should quickly order a billion killer-robots from Asia, before the Chinese realize they could use them to conquer us.


Maybe, just before they attack, we could sue China for patent infringment.

I remember those fake Rolex watches a few years ago, the real ones cost thousands of dollars each, yet I bought my Rolex from a street vendor for around $30. Although the watch wasn't labled 'Made in China,' believe me, it was made in China, and kept the time well. It had a quartz movement, something the real Rolex people never perfected.

[ausiedownunderground]

33. What happens when the Guerillas re-program one of these?

Iraq has more fully qualified engineers per capita than any country in the Middle East. Wait till the Guerillas get a hold of one of these?? Suicide bombing robots!!! Yeeehaw- is not a Foreign Policy!

[UL_Approved]

34. Fahrenheit 451

This is the kind of mechanical soldiers used in Fahrenheit 451 (not 911). They had the automated bombers, the "mechanical hound", and other choice police state technology with no hesitation or conscience. This is a step in that direction...

[IndianaGreen]

35. So we are turning the Iraq War over to the Cylons!

And how long before our robotic monsters decide to take over from humanity?

Remember that Scifi is based on real life and it poses questions that challenge us, and of those questions has been what would happen if humankind's machines become smarter than humans and decide to rule.

The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April.

I think this statement makes it clear to the most dense that the war in Iraq was a war of conquest, not liberation. How can any humanitarian wish that our troops do well in their crimes in Iraq? They are no better than the Nazi armies that occupied Europe!

Death to the Empire! Long Live the Republic!

[BiggJawn]

44. "By. Your. Command...."

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

36. What would a paintball do to its optics? Hose the thing down with paint

and it would be useless until the painters picked it up and changed the frequency to send it back.

An EMP?

A hole in the ground covered with a sheet?

Radio jamming technology?


This sounds really porous.

[htuttle]

48. Easier than that -- throw lasso over the camera post and tip it over

They can't climb a 2 foot wall, or cross a short trench. No perephral vision, top speed of 4mph.

Sure. At 200K each, such a deal...

I'm sure they'll find a way to increase that price! That's the whole point of this -- more corporate welfare for defense contractors.

That, and to decrease the political cost of war so that they can casually invade here or there, and nobody's mother comes crying to the White House.

Same reason they outsource so much military work. Not the financial cost (which is MUCH more expensive), but rather the domestic POLITICAL cost is cheaper.

[RPM]

38. Robo-soldier will happily fire upon US civilians...

... welcome to a dark future.

[RockStar]

39. I hope these robot soldiers misfire and start killing their masters

[Tacos al Carbon]

41. There we go

Wishes for U.S. soldiers to be killed.

Welcome to DU. You'll find plenty of support.

[RockStar]

42. Unless US soldiers made the robots...Otherwise please read comment before

mis quoting me.

[Tacos al Carbon]

43. It won't be some tech running these things in the field

And why on earth would you want to see the engineers dead? These robots are another tool, like a gun or body armor or a tank that keeps our soldiers (or my soldiers, at least ... wouldn't want to speak for you) safer than they otherwise would be. If they work well I hope they find their way to our men and women in the field fast and I hope that the men and women who designed and built them get a great big thank you.

You, on the other hand, would rather they were killed for some reason.

[underpants]

45. "They can be boxed up and warehoused between WARS."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/gunslinging_robot

Military officials like to compare the roughly three-foot-high robots favorably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.

[Massachusetts]

46. "Danger Will Robinson, danger"

[GiovanniC]

47. Okay, Now I'm Fucking Pissed

They have the cool-ass robotic warrior Destructo-droids, but where the fuck is my goddamned flying car? I was told there would be flying cars in 2000! That's the year two-mother-fucking-thousand! They are five years late already! I want my flying car! And I want it to operate on rainbows and dreams!

Now, back to the topic at hand, we need to give everyone in the world these robots so that becomes the way we fight wars. My robot fights your robot... no more death and carnage. It could be like Battle Bots. Think of the problems that would be solved.

And then, when they turn on their human masters, as all science fiction shows that they inevitably will, the human race can finally overcome their goddamned differences and band together as one and show those droids what's what.

[RockStar]

50. speaking of the flying cars where are the xray glasses...you know the ones

we could see through clothes...Or the Photon Torpedos or Lasers...Oppss the lasers are being used to shoot down airlines according to the U.S. governement. Funny never thought a $5 laser toy could do that.

[htuttle]

51. You have to put more batteries in it to do that

At least a couple more D-Cells.

[fshrink]

52. We already have a robot in the WH (early series). nt

[superconnected]

54. robots killing people - the bloodthirsty bushco gets what it wants

unfeeling, insentient killing.

notice how things keep getting unimaginably worse.

[fooj]

56. This is INSANE! What in the Hell ARE THEY DOING?

:scared: Has everyone gone mad?

[cosmicdot]

57. kick n/m