Posted on 10/16/2021 10:22:12 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The U.S. Army intends to test an entire company of unmanned combat vehicles in simulated battle next year, a wargame that leaders called unprecedented and a big step toward refining the hardware and software that will one day enable wheeled robots to take the battlefield.
Gen. Ross Coffman, the director of Army Futures Command’s Next Generation Combat Cross-Functional Team, told reporters at AUSA this week that the closest thing to the Army’s upcoming robot exercise at Fort Hood, Texas, was last year’s platoon-sized effort at Fort Carson, Colorado.
For that exercise, the Army turned some old M113 armored personnel carriers into robots. “You can imagine that if you can turn a 113, you can turn anything into a robot,” Coffman said. “We learned a ton. There were some clear winners in the technology base. There were some that weren't as great.” Among the winners was the human-machine interface, he said.
“Now we're moving it up to company level.” he said. “The lessons learned here, we can now then apply to a brigade and to a division and see how we want to fight with these things in the future."
In August, the Army hired five firms to design prototypes for unmanned combat vehicles: Point Blank Enterprises., Oshkosh Defense, BAE Systems Land and Armaments, General Dynamics Land Systems, and American Rheinmetall Vehicles. Part of the deal: the vehicles must conform to an open systems architecture that can accomodate third-party software and sensors.
(Excerpt) Read more at technology ...
What could possibly go wrong?
The chips may be American made, but you know that some of the designers were probably Chinese.
Are we going to give them to the Taliban? Or the ChiComs?
Just saying.... if we are building them china is building them faster. If we are building them then our battle expertise is worthless. If we are building them, then there is no battle fatigue to worry about. And if we are building them then our army can go to war without us even knowing.
It’s inevitable that robotics will play an ever-increasing part in military weaponry. Really the stuff of sci-fi flicks. And incredibly dangerous.
The M113 was my MOS specialty. They had an average 800 op hrs before major breakdowns (on the books). But with years of experience, I always thought that was a too high a figure. A newly rebuilt one never made it that far. With a company of 12, at least there would be 2 engine and 1 trans swap out on a two-week maneuver. However the disclaimer is, that was years ago. I have no idea what upgrades have taken place after 15 yrs away from them.
Well hell, if they are unmanned, why not just let ‘em do it for real? Let em just fight it out. After all, we are flush with money. Don’t know what else we will spend it on.
First production run of Bolos.
At 2:14 a.m. Eastern Standard Time it becomes self-aware...
I can’t reach the link.
I was going to forward it to a tank guy. Tell him I hope he enjoyed his time in a tank.
Robot jet fighter and bomber aircraft can’t be too far behind.
Johnny 5 is alive!
So, I don’t think I fully understand the point.
First: every life is precious, and if a soldier in an armored division lost their life in the Iraq War, then that is a tragedy. Or a jet pilot in training or deployment.
However — how heavy have our losses been in the past 50 years? Are we losing armor crews in the Ardennes? Are our bomber fleets being devastated over Ploesti?
Our loss of life in these types of machines is minimal. And even in a really big hot war, do we think we’d send tanks into Asia? Or that China would turn California into Omaha Beach? I don’t see big loss of life under any circumstances. But the cost of automation is very high. As far as cost/benefit goes is this really worth it?
I’ll tell you what I think — if the military today had to “pacify” the American people, at least some of the military today would say “No”. But the more we automate, the more we turn it into a video game, the easier it is to find a small group of operators who will “go into combat” day after day and do what they are told without question.
I don’t think it is good to make war too impersonal. But, of course, I see why people in uniform might support this. I do get the concept to that extent.
I'll second that.
When I was younger I would see new military concepts and think they were really cool. Now I think “So this is how they’re going to kill me.”
That’s a good looking armored vehicle. The main gun...105mm?
Does this imply that they have already experimented with small robot tanks?
What could possibly go wrong?
3 letters - EMP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.