Which SciFi story does this remind you of?
Army readies robot soldier for Iraq
SWORDS will be the first armed automaton to see combat
... 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.
... But officials are quick to point out that these are not the autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot shoots only when its human operator presses a button after identifying a target on video shot by the robot?s cameras.
?The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder, it?s up to half a mile a way,? said Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller Inc., the Waltham, Mass., company that makes the SWORDS. As one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon seeing the robot: ?This is my invisibility cloak.?
In the future, those first person shooter and mecha video game skills honed over the years in childhood will make one an ideal candidate for the military pilot or driver?
SWORDS will be the first armed automaton to see combat
... 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.
... But officials are quick to point out that these are not the autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot shoots only when its human operator presses a button after identifying a target on video shot by the robot?s cameras.
?The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder, it?s up to half a mile a way,? said Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller Inc., the Waltham, Mass., company that makes the SWORDS. As one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon seeing the robot: ?This is my invisibility cloak.?
In the future, those first person shooter and mecha video game skills honed over the years in childhood will make one an ideal candidate for the military pilot or driver?
Comments
Hey, that doesn't look like Johnny 5...
Anyway, wonder if some white paint on the camera "eyes" will do the trick?
Originally posted by segovius
How long before it goes FUBAR and the insurgents capture one or two and 'turn' them ?
You heard it here first....
ROBOCOP!
Against a super-efficient army like the american, there is no wonder, suicide bombings are so "popular".
So the question is just, what's next? Probably kids. A robot killing a kid will turn the world, so the logic thing to do is have a kid go up and strap an explosive to this beast, and then have it blown up remotely...
Sick, but realistic...
I think about the fictional examples in Star Wars for example...like with the Ewoks taking out the gee whiz Imperial walkers with some rope and a couple of logs.
Cracks me up.
Originally posted by Existence
Cool! Now wars will be even more like video games.
They have been evolving that way for years. A fair amount of this war was "fought" from the comfort of a command center in Florida. Big screens (no doubt)...comfy chairs (no doubt)...game controllers? Probably close.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
I have been wondering for a while whether our technological superiority will turn around to be become a liability at some point.
I think about the fictional examples in Star Wars for example...like with the Ewoks taking out the gee whiz Imperial walkers with some rope and a couple of logs.
Cracks me up.
At some point? I'd say this pretty much proves beyond doubt that we're there already.
Originally posted by New
At some point? I'd say this pretty much proves beyond doubt that we're there already.
Could be be. I'm not sure the U.S. military has ever been very good at fighting small bands of "rebels" (or terrorists or "insurgents") anyway.
I had very little doubt of our military victory over the "army" of Iraq and the "Elite Republican Guard"...it is the small stuff that I was always concerned about.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Could be be. I'm not sure the U.S. military has ever been very good at fighting small bands of "rebels" (or terrorists or "insurgents") anyway.
I had very little doubt of our military victory over the "army" of Iraq and the "Elite Republican Guard"...it is the small stuff that I was always concerned about.
Future wars will not be fought by the millitary... on any side...
'Cause eventually, the Cylons will rebel, and chase us off the planet.
Fighting villians from afar
You've gotta find first gear
In your giant robot car
YOU
DIG
GI-ANT ROBOTS
I
DIG
GI-ANT ROBOTS
WE
DIG
GI-ANT ROBOTS
CHICKS
DIG
GI-ANT ROBOTS
Nice!
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Could be be. I'm not sure the U.S. military has ever been very good at fighting small bands of "rebels" (or terrorists or "insurgents") anyway.
I'm not sure any military can be anymore...the only way to be successful in thse kinds of conflicts is to use the kinds of tactics that are considered war crimes. A good example would be the latter stages of the second Boer war - when guerilla fighting began, the British army was forced to round up women and children in concentration camps, killing all livestock and burning crops.
The trouble is, it's very difficult to get away with that kind of thing these days. Particularly on the kind of scale that would be required.
With technology like this you allow yourself to make enemies with a lot more masses.
Originally posted by Anders
The enemy is not people, its a mass that has to be reduced until it can´t fight anymore. And in post Vietnam it only becomes an enemy if you can be sure it can´t kill more than a very few of your own people.
With technology like this you allow yourself to make enemies with a lot more masses.
for 200 000$ a piece, good luck on that deficit...
Originally posted by Hiro
These are not robots, they are essentiall remote controlled "cars" or "baby tanks without the armor". You still have a person operating it. Just because Battlebots calls a very custom remote control car a robot and screws with undisciplined use of language doesn't make it so. There is nothing autonomous about any of it. It's actually pretty underwhelming and limited in what it can do.
A robot doesn't have to be autonomous. It just have to perform under some kind of automation. So it's by definition not really a robot, but could very easily become one.
Anyway, that's not really the point. It's the first robot-like weapon to be deployed in warefare. And it will be perceived as a robot. At least to it's targets...
From an Iraqi insurgent point of view, I was thinking it could be like Terminator. From their point of view, it can very easily be robots indiscriminantly killing, especially if they are sensitive to low tech countermeasures such as covering its sensors. If it is so, then the operators are going to be very sensitive to people going near it.