“Terminators” Head to Iraq

US Army Preps “Robo-Soldier” for Iraq

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/23/2005 | 09:51 AM ]

Twenty-one year after the “Terminator” hit the cinemas around the world, the US army is preparing eighteen remote-controlled armed robots to serve in Iraq. Previously such robots were called the TALON and were used to disable bombs, but then they were armed and called Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems (SWORDS).

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“The $200,000, armed version will carry standard-issue Squad Automatic Weapons, either the M249, which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at a rate of 750 per minute, or the M240, which can fire about 700 to 1000 7.62-millimeter rounds per minute. The SWORDS can fire about 300 rounds using the M240 and about 350 rounds using the M249 before needing to reload. Running on lithium ion batteries, it can operate for 1 to 4 hours at a time, depending on the mission,” claims Associated Press.

While currently the SWORDS robots are not intelligent right now, it seems to be only the matter of time for them to be able to work independently.

• Yahoo News/Associated Press: Army Prepares 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq.
• GlobalSecurity.org: TALON Small Mobile Robot.
• Military.com: Swords Play.