This month’s National Defense magazine reports that the Army has quietly introduced a rifle-toting robot into the Iraq war. So far three of the Special Weapons Observation Remote Reconnaissance Direct Action System (SWORDS) have been deployed. (Wouldn’t that acronym actually be SWORRDAS? And how long did some major at the systems command spend working that one up?)
The SWORDS is armed with a M249 rifle and is remotely controlled by a soldier through a terminal. There are no reports of the SWORDS being used in actual combat yet, however.
The 80 robots approved under an urgent materiel release are being held up “due to limited funding in fiscal years 2006–2007,” said Lt. Col. William Wiggins, a spokesman for the office of the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.
While SWORDS is currently not a program of record, the Army has initiated a memorandum of agreement between ARDEC and Robotic System-Joint Project Office to expedite establishing a funded program to meet Army needs,” Wiggins said in a written statement.
(Gouge: CM)
– Ward
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Ok, I tried to hold off as long as I could but I can’t hold it in any more.
What in the hell are we supposed to do with this thing? Stripped of all its marketing adjectives, all this is is a 5.56mm machine gun (the 249 SAW.)
Remote recon? What’s the range on this thing? What’s the speed? It can’t be that fast, and it can’t have that much range, which basically means that there’s going to be a bunch of joes hanging outside town gathered round the SWORDS operator as he “searches” the town. Not very tactical. How is this an improvement over all the other intel gathering platforms we already have?
Sure you can argue that this thing saves lives because you risk the robot in place of a soldier, but if the robot does take one for the regiment then you’ve thrown away whatever tactical surprise you had. Great, you know there are baddies in the town, because they took out your bot, but now THEY know you’re there too because they know that robot just didn’t decide to go on walkabout by itself. So the end result is you’ve verified the existence of an armed, and alert enemy, and now you have to either go in and dig him out conventionally, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place, or use a smart bomb, assuming some are available and the ROE permit their use (the loss of the SWORDS only tells you there are hostiles out there, not how many.)
As for direct action, I don’t know how much direct action ‘action’ you’ll be getting out of a tiny 5.56mm machine gun. How many rounds does this carry?? 100, 200, 500?? How long is that going to last, and what do you do when it runs out, drive it back to your hide out and re-load it (no, the enemy would never think to follow it back…)
The bottom line is, this is pure, unadulterated “force protection” pork. You want tactical reconnaissance? Use a Raven. They’re cheap, they’re quiet, and they work. You want direct action, send in a tank. You want an accurate, stabilized, remotely operated weapons platform for static force protection? Use a TRAP system; they’re proven, they’re reliable, and they work.
This device has more to do with job security than soldier security.
As long as there is a human operator in the loop, why not?
Why not a whole company of them? But, who is going to reload, change barrels or fix jams?
May be good for good terrain ops, but not on Robert’s Ridge…many situations where it is useless.
Still, it may help in cases where we have to clear buildings after an initial contact, like in the Haditha episode.
Still, they would have had to wait on one to be delivered, hampering their search effort and losing the time element, making them even more vulnerable to a possible follow on attack.
However, had the killings occurred with a robot, that would have added a whole new dimension to the case.
So what is an M249 *rifle*? Do they mean M249 SAW, or M24 sniper rifle, or something else?
RE: What do we do with it?
You use it in place of a private, that’s what. RE: “Its useless in a lot of situations”…so are most privates, but when you need them, you NEED them.
The key to its usefulness is having it on hand with the troops all the time. Off the top of my head I can think of dozens of uses, all of them related to city fighting and immediate tactical solutions.
ex: Point man goes down in an alley from a burst of AK fire…send the droid in to find the shooter, if possible, and then to provide cover while two more guys go in and drag out the wounded man. Any where you can imagine having to send someone into a known high threat situation — you could send a droid first — it has superior optics (day/night/zoom/IR) and is far more expendable than a private. Those types of situations can crop up at a momements notice, any day of the week.
View it as an additional squad/team member that gets all the sh*t assignments — peering around the corner under fire…proofing “safe” corridors/structures…or just standing outside at O-dark-thirty on guard duty.
I would certainly want a secondary weapon on it (in case of problems with the primary), and something like an M203 or M79 for some quick and powerful suppression. But this is a start. A good start, IMO.
I read an article a couple years ago about mounting a .50 cal or a MK19 on a similar platform. The droid would roll off the back of a Stryker, and the operator would be inside.
There are tons of uses for this thing. When the Stryker stops, and they can’t see over a wall, they can roll out the droid and get a better angle.
Or it can be the number one man through the door, followed immediately by the rest of the Squad.
Like the first guy said — this is the early version.
The CROW system (which is a remote .50 fired from inside a vehicle) was called useless as well — and I love that thing.
It’s not a cure all — but it has it’s uses.
I wish my SAW had been mounted on a robot and not in my hands. I wouldn’t have so many nightmares.…
Are you Sarah Conner?
According to:
http://www.spacewar.com/news/robot-05zzv.html
a robot-mounted sniper detection system has already been demonstrated.
I wonder if some future model will have an auto-shootback
capability to hit enemy snipers before they can take cover or evade.
It looks like SWORDS is just another version of Talon, the EOD robot. Military.com/SoldierTech reported on it back in 2004. By some accounts, it’s already been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
I saw this thing demonstrated on Discovey Channel last year. It is quiet, has a 6 hour battery life, and has a scope to make a 400 meter target look like he’s 10 feet away. The demonstration used 3 of them to hunt an enemy. He saw barely saw 1, but not the other 2. They took the robot to the range and the SAW was stabilized enough to maintain a shot group on full auto for several seconds of fire. The geeks who built this are already making prototypes to mount .50 cals and sniper rifles.
It would definitely be useful in certain situations, but also think of the countermeasures.
In it’s present form, it cannot think on it’s ‘feet’. If you disable a sensor, have a gun jam, or run it over in the street (if it doesn’t kill you first), game is over.
When it runs out of ammo or jams up, it is vulnerable, and escape is the only option. (Can it call in CAS?)
Still, for force protection, clearing ops, etc. it is the first generation of much more advanced robotic infantry to come…
SWORDS was also demonstrated at Picatinny with a 4-barrel 40mm MetalStorm launcher. Good chance to combine a scaleable response from non-lethal to lethal on the one UGV.
It seems like this device is a tool, weapon and a resource with advantages and disadvantages. It can be used effectively or ineffectively just like anything else from your knife to your socks. I suspect that this weapon will be used with all the skill and intelligence that is used with any other weapon and that it will be used when effective and not used when it is not and when used at other times the operator will hopefully learn from his mistakes.
How do you stop a robot with an M240? You don’t.
Eric;
Range, 1000 yards. 5 cameras. Very stable platform, can handle .50 cal sniper rifles, too. Goes over rocks, up stairs. Moves as fast as a running man, very quiet, doesn’t get tired. Operator fires using sniperscope image on his laptop. No breath control, finger squeeze, yadda-yadda. Expendible.
So shaddup arreddy.
Being the lead engineer on the design of a much smaller version of this platform, I can assure you the UGV has numerous applications. It is in support of regular soldiers and can be used, just as with UAVs for long– term missions I.e manning a lookout along the border. Operators can get changed for a fresh, clean and alert operator. As an M24 sniper, I would be out for two weeks at a time alone. If this platform could replace some of the drudgery or risk, then all the better. Send a smaller model into a building before the troops move in. What is wrong with that? Don’t slam what you don’t understand.
BTW How many rounds does a regular soldier carry 7 or 8 M16 mags of 30 each rounds for a total of 210–240 rounds I would carry 8 rounds of 29 each for the A4 and 100 rounds for the M24. One case of chained 5.56mm would exceed that. That is a lot of ammo that very few soldiers would carry at any one time. Why should the robot be expected to carry any more than one case
If you view an infantryman as nothing more than a weapon with boots, then this machine would be a terrific replacement infantryman.
Mind you, it’s that sort of attitude that gets you into losing wars.
I was told once by a proud airman that the unofficial motto of the USAF was KILL PEOPLE AND BREAK THEIR STUFF. My response was “No, that’s the motto of Godzilla. The motto of the USAF should be PROTECT YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS FROM HARM.“
This is a machine for people who think KILL PEOPLE AND BREAK THEIR STUFF is the ideal motto for an armed force, when in fact it’s a minor — and arguably not even the most important — part of what most armed forces do.
If you think that land mines are inhuman,consider this,if we do go to war with Iran,then they will attack like they did during the Iran-Iraq war(& how the Soviet Union fought Germany in World war II) & that is a whole hord of foot soldiers leading the charge to clear any possible mine fields & the tanks & other armored vehicles following behind them.Very suicidal I know.These armed SWORDs can help augment our soldiers to be able to repel these swarm attacks.People can laugh at the idea of Iran doing this,but if they keep sending enough people wave after wave(& remember that human life isn’t as valued by Iran as it is in the West,or at least supposed to be),they will eventually get through.Also when the rainy season would come in the Spring in Iraq,the Iraqis couldn’t maneuver their armor because of the muck & mire in the swamps.Iran used small boats & hovercrafts to take islands one by one in Iraq during this time of the season during the Iran-Iraq war.Our armor would be useless if we went into Iran because of their mountains & that desert that defeated our delta force from rescuing the American Embasy hostages in 1979.
“How do you stop a robot with an M240? You don’t.“
Sorry, I don’t want to start a flamewar, but hyperbole aside, you’d stop it any way you’d stop other weapon systems, including humans with 240s. Shit, there are people right here at home who would go after SWORDS with a stolen Escalade, a bindle of crank, a short dog of Wild Turkey, and a pack of Kools.
Fortunately, most of them are incarcerated, or otherwise institutionalized.
Katyusha rockets, RPGs, IEDs, EFPs, 23mm, 12.7mm, even those 30mm Russian grenade launchers: anything you’d shoot at an APC can be used to kill a robot.
Is SWORDS useful? Sure. Would I want one in the tool box if my ass were on the line? You bet.
Let’s just be a little realistic about what it can and can’t do. I can’t see from the pictures what it’s elevation or traverse angles are, but worse comes to worst, you just might be able to drop a piano on the thing. Or a dumpster. Or, trap it in a pit.
Somebody’s going to learn how to neutralize this thing, or die trying. Keep that in mind, if only because someday the shoe may be on the other foot. We’re not the only country out there building robots.
Sure you can stop it. It is still interesting to think you can have armed patrols where no risk of human life. The robot could have sensors, acoustic and visual that tell you where shots are being fired from. You almost want it to be shot at if it does.
Need these on the US Mex Border & Iraq.
Nice.
Have 1 Unit guide about 100 SWORDS into action./
Mount with 360 arc Gun Module.
Add Pain Ray array Mini,
Minigun
Grenade Launcher
NV
IR
PA
Self destruct bomb
Guided by I Phone, PDA, cel phone or Remotecontrol wand.
5 SWORDS can keep the narcos busy until Heavy Guns come on in.
Sweet.
Add 50 cal Barrets rifle to mix.
100 rounds.
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I see a few great uses for this type of robot in Afghanistan as detectors, video surveillence & remote snipers…
They could be rapidly airdropped in isolated border areas where ‘insurgent traffic’ is common.
They could be placed outside base peremeters
They could also be set to patrol tunnels