Robot Warriors In Iraq

The Pentagon Is Looking Towards High-Tech Solutions In Effort To Reduce U.S. Casualties

(CBS)  The sniper nests and IED-laced roads of Iraq have posed deadly challenges for the U.S. military. The result has been speedy development of soldiers that know nothing about fear or danger: the combat robot.

"It's a tremendous capability to put a robot where you do not want to put a man," said Jim Braden, of the Army's Joint Robotics Program.

Never before have robots played such a wide role in a ground war, reports CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell. Five thousand robots are working alongside U.S. forces, finding booby traps or searching for the enemy.

"The real trend right now is the infantry and maneuver forces looking at, 'what can a robot do for me,'" said Braden.

That demand has forced technicians to improvise and use parts found on store shelves. Some robot monitors have been purchased at Radio Shack. Certain controllers are from video games.

The Pentagon plans to spend nearly $2 billion over the next five years on robots, ranging in size from a multi-ton minesweeper to tiny devices now used by Special Forces.

Robots in Iraq and Afghanistan have already disarmed nearly 10,000 IEDs. One of the most widely used is built by the same Massachusetts company that has sold millions of robotic vacuum cleaners to American consumers.

IRobot is now one of the chief suppliers of robots to the U.S. military. Their devices have grown in size too, like the Warrior, shown exclusively to CBS News.

"This is a serious robot," said Russ Dyer of IRobot, referring to the Warrior. "This is a 250 pound robot that will be able to run a 4-minute mile."

The Warrior could be in Iraq by 2009, transporting ammunition or wounded soldiers. But another robot recently sent to Iraq is lethal.

It's called Swords and CBS News has learned three of these armed robots could see their first combat very soon. But the military insists it is not unleashing a mindless killing machine. A soldier must press the fire button.

"You need a man in the loop," said Braden. "There has to be a human deciding if there's going to be ordinance going downrange."

But the ability for robots to think for themselves - what designers call "autonomy" - may not be far away.

The Army is already testing supply robots that move across the battlefield without a human operator.

"It's what we call disruptive technology," said Dyer of IRobot. "It's going to change the way we fight, the way we live - it's going to change our entire lives."

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 12:59 PM : Oct 22, 2007
+ report abuse

****

btw..thank you for correcting how to spell MY OWN FU CKING NAME...something to think about..you sling very eloquent bullsh*t

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 12:59 PM : Oct 22, 2007
+ report abuse

************

I hope you do all your thinking while riding your bike.

"you love your stake but you simply try to ignore and deny how the cow was butchered"

[erinye_fury]

That machine, no doubt costing a lot of taxpayer money, looks like it could be shot out of the war with a single well placed AK47 bullet. An RPG round, or an IED and it is a piece of scrap metal.

[xzavierbrown]

History will be kind to George Bush. After all, when was the last time you saw the phrase, "dumb fvck" in a history textbook?

Regards,


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 05:21 AM : Oct 22, 2007
+ report abuse


*****

none..most liberal ''appeasement'' warriors never made it to the history books..NOT UNLESS THEY REWRITE HISTORY BOOKS

[mind-matter]

"But the ability for robots to think for themselves - what designers call "autonomy" - may not be far away."

As an expert in the field, allow me to point out that robot "autonomy" and the ability to "think for themselves" are by no means synonymous. The former is already more or less possible in some instances, whereas the latter is now, and will ever be, totally impossible.

[drummer94]

"The Warrior could be in Iraq by 2009". Shudder. Let''s hope that will be the only thing there in 2009 and the real warriors will be home.

[antoniof123]

History will be kind to George Bush. After all, when was the last time you saw the phrase, "dumb fvck" in a history textbook?

Regards,

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 05:21 AM : Oct 22, 2007

Nancy that is the best one yet true and funny.

[ziparmux]

"Our troops" just murdered and maimed a bunch more Iraqi civilians in Sadr City!

www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/worl
d/middleeast/22iraq.html

Posted by FeelFree1 at 03:34 AM : Oct 22, 2007

Just read the article and copied and pasted a few lines from the article as follows:

American soldiers came under heavy fire from gunmen using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades

killing 49 militants

heavy fire continued and the attackers detonated a roadside bomb

Ten other Iraqi fighters were killed as the Americans tried to withdraw

%u201CGround forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation,%u201D
....end quotes.

Not a mention of one single US service personel being even injured !

If the reorting is accurate, then that does not sound right to me, your under heavy fire/rpg''s/roadside bombs, etc and yet not one single US soldier even breaks a nail !!

[feelfree1]

Related:

"Our troops" just murdered and maimed a bunch more Iraqi civilians in Sadr City!

Maliki-puppet feigns disapproval!

Go team!

www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/world/middleeast/22iraq.html

[iceman_1960]

RE: "This is a 250 pound robot that will be able to run a 4-minute mile."

Could we not use these to replace human athletes in the NFL and elsewhere ?

There would be no more knee or spinal cord injuries, no more steroid controversies, no more racial tensions... not to mention a much higher level of play.

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by Iceman_1960 at 03:02 AM : Oct 22, 2007

Seriously, I did receive a laughably slanted poll like that once, from Hillary Clinton"s campaign.

Sample question:

"How concerned are you that the Bush/Cheney administration is reducing America"s stature in the eyes of the World, and diminishing our basic Constitutional liberties at home ?

(a) Very concerned.
(b) Somewhat concerned.
(c) Not concerned."

[feelfree1]

Iceman_1960,

Re: "Of course when CBS phrases the question like that, it slants the result."

Nice!;-)

[feelfree1]

%u201CWhy we stand for immediate withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq%u201D

%u201CTHE U.S. occupation of Iraq has not liberated the Iraqi people, but has made life worse for most Iraqis.%u201D

%u201CTens of thousands of U.S. service people have been killed or maimed, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of the U.S. invasion in 2003, the ongoing occupation, and the violence unleashed by them.%u201D

%u201CIraq''s infrastructure has been destroyed, and U.S. plans for reconstruction abandoned. There is less electricity, less clean drinking water, and more unemployment today than before the U.S. invasion.%u201D

%u201CAll of the justifications initially provided by the U.S. for waging war on Iraq have been exposed as lies; the real reasons for the invasion %u2014 to control Iraq''s oil reserves and to increase U.S. strategic influence in the region %u2014 now stand revealed.%u201D

%u201CThe Bush administration has insisted again and again that stability, democracy, and prosperity are around the next bend in the road%u2026But the U.S. has deliberately stoked sectarian divisions in its ongoing attempt to install a U.S.-friendly regime, thus driving Iraq towards civil war.%u201D

%u201CWe call on the U.S. to get out of Iraq %u2014 not in six months, not in a year, but now.%u201D

www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow

[iceman_1960]

"According to a recent CBS survey, only 26% of Americans are happy about how King Dipshit"s illegal war is going."
- Posted by FeelFree1 at 02:09 AM : Oct 22, 2007

Of course when CBS phrases the question like that, it slants the result.



[Just kidding]

[iceman_1960]

In fact there has never been a presidential election landslide in American history that equals the 64% who want the troops out of Iraq in a year.

The closest was Lyndon Johnson"s 61.1% over Goldwater in 1964.

It it were up to the American people, we"d be exiting that quagmire within a year.

[iceman_1960]

RE: "64% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year."

To put that number in perspective, that"s a smaller percentage than voted for Nixon [60%] over McGovern in 1972, the second biggest landslide in American history.

[iceman_1960]

Conservative pollster Rasmussen agrees with CBS about Iraq.

"Tuesday, October 16, 2007

For the second straight week, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 64% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year. Prior to this week"s results, support for bringing the troops home had increased in three consecutive weeks.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) who want the troops brought home immediately. That"s unchanged from a week ago but up from 20" five weeks ago."

Reference:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/iraq_troop_withdrawal

[feelfree1]

Related:

According to a recent CBS survey, only 26% of Americans are happy about how King Dipshit''s illegal war is going.

.

CBS News Poll. Oct. 12-16, 2007. N=1,282 adults nationwide. MoE 1 3 (for all adults).

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?"


Approve% Disapprove % Unsure %



ALL adults
26 67 7


Republicans
58 35 7


Democrats
8 89 3


Independents
18 72 10

[incog-nito]

Did Bush finally enlist?

[iceman_1960]

"The Pentagon Is Looking Towards High-Tech Solutions In Effort To Reduce U.S. Casualties"

Here''s one. (No extraoridinary high tech required.)

Now that al Qaeda has been "defeated" in Iraq, just do what we always said we were going to do when that happened.

Stand down, so the Iraqis can stand up. The good Iraqis. Maliki"s crowd. They have had more than enough time to get ready.

The Keystone Kops could have gotten ready in all the time they"ve had, and all the aid and support.

Pull the troops out. That would reduce U.S. casualties to zero.

And it"s what Bush always said he would do once al Qadea was defeated.