Like it or not, robots are swiftly making their way deeper and deeper into battlefield operations.
Though the airborne drone seems to take precedent, both in combat operations as well as media coverage, there are a few robots bubbling beneath the public consciousness that hardly anyone talks about.
Here are a few of the coolest bots no one seems to notice.
The U.S. Marine Corps Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle packs a punch, with missiles and machine gun mounts
The Gladiator is the coolest remote control car anyone can own.
From a Marine Corps article:
The Gladiator is loaded with all sorts of gadgets and weaponry, including day and night cameras, a chemical detection system, Light Vehicle Obscuration Smoke System, and is mounted with either M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, the M240G Medium Machine Gun, 9 mm Uzi or an Anti-Personnel/Obstacle Breaching System (APOBS).
The U.S. Army's XM1219 Armed Robotic Vehicle can drive over just about anything, and kill bad guys
If it looks badass, it probably is.
The 7-ton Armed Robotic Vehicle, or ARV, is capable of carrying a ton, that's 2000 lbs, of weaponry. Deployable from a variety of airborne troops carriers, to include the C-130 cargo plane and the CH-46 helicopter.
It incorporates a 'man-in-the-loop' semi autonomous firing system, which boasts the capability for common missiles, hellfire missiles, medium machine gun systems as well as the 30mm Mk 44 chain gun.
It's mobile enough to follow the ground infantry almost anywhere, and it can even carry them in tougher terrain.
This is not one remote control car you're going to find under the Christmas tree.
The U.S. Navy's 'MacGuyver' Bot is the next generation of automated disaster relief
Designers put the MacGuyver Bot together with disaster relief in mind. It's arms and hands are incredibly dexterous, enabling the bot to literally 'make' tools on the spot, depending on what it needs to help humans out of tight positions.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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