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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| IDF magazine: Wounded soldiers will soon be evacuated by unmanned vehicles |
| 2008-08-20 |
| An Israel Defense Forces magazine recently reported that Israel was developing an unmanned vehicle that would evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield. The soldiers' weekly Bamahaneh reported in its latest issue that development is in the early stages. The article carried a picture of a flat, tank-like vehicle. It added that the vehicle could be guided from afar, possibly using GPS satellite technology. It would ferry wounded soldiers back to field hospitals for treatment. According to the article, the new technology would reduce the risk to medics treating wounded soldiers in the battlefield while under fire. The weekly magazine reported that development is in a preliminary stage and that deployment is still far off, adding that an unmanned aircraft to be used to evacuate wounded soldiers was also being considered for development. Another recent IDF development is the Guardium ? a robotic soldier that can see at night, never nods off on sentry duty and can carry 300 kilograms (660 pounds) without complaining. The unmanned ground vehicle, commissioned by the IDF, is essentially a robotic soldier, among the first in the world to be operational. It can replace human soldiers in dangerous roles, cutting casualty rates. Like the pilotless drones that have become a mainstay of air forces in Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere, the four-wheeled Guardium is operated from a command room that can be far from the front line. It can be mounted with cameras, night-vision equipment and sensors, as well as machine guns. Following pre-programmed routes, it can navigate alone through cities - the vehicle knows how to deal with intersections, traffic and road markings. It can patrol borders, its cameras scanning 360 degrees at all times, and alert operators if it spots anything suspicious. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #10 DOD has working prototypes of the BEAR robot for extracting wounded soldiers and carrying them to safety. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-08-20 16:06 |
| #9 SKYNET is here. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-08-20 11:14 |
| #8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJbVKxssBDE Crusher! (from Future Weapons) |
| Posted by: JitterBug 2008-08-20 11:05 |
| #7 Um... After they pick up the wounded soldier, they won't be unmanned anymore, will they? Huh? Huh? |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-08-20 10:27 |
| #6 The obvious, but probably politically unacceptable, development is suicide bomber bots. THat was called the Goliath in WWII German Army. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-08-20 05:36 |
| #5 Military channel had a program on robotic warfre some time ago and featured this concept in one segment. SWARM s the word of the day, not one robot, but many multi-operational robots working in conjunction with field operators who can be in the actual battlespace or somewhere in VA drinking their latte's. Geeks indeed. That being said...Human war is a human endeavor and should remain so for humans' sake. AI ain't that far off and when the robots feel threatened what then? Just a bit of paranoia that always comes out when this subject comes up here. Too many Terminator reruns perhaps. |
| Posted by: EHLTB 2008-08-20 03:58 |
| #4 We are rapidly approaching the point where we going to see an actual robot war. That's the future and we aren't the undisputed leaders in that field. Time for a major push to develop geeks. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-08-20 03:12 |
| #3 The obvious, but probably politically unacceptable, development is suicide bomber bots. In particular, kevlar armoured bots that move forward into areas where the enemy is advancing through and target armour, command vehicles, troop concentrations. This would be a very scary weapon and cheap to produce. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-08-20 02:56 |
| #2 But, does it have a Tnuctipun Slaver stasis field? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-08-20 00:26 |
| #1 The Tokyo Fire Department has a body-recovery robot that reportedly also has an on-board oxygen supply. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-08-20 00:14 |