On September 18, 2024, the United States military sent at least one robot dog with an artificial intelligence turret to the Middle East in order to test its ability to counter drones. The robot dog is one of many anti-drone technology they have been testing so far. They have been slowly adding robot dogs to the defense force over the years which has been able to improve security in the area.
The exact location where the robot dog testing took place was at Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia. The weapon the dog has seems to be an Ar-15/m16-pattern rifle. There have also been some ground targets tested, but there have been no reports on the test results.
The escalating threats in the area were the main reason why they chose the Middle East as their testing place for their defense systems. They also tested their Stryker-mounted laser weapon prototype in the Middle East to test its viability. They also sent out their Unmanned Long-Endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft (ULTRA) for the first time in the Middle East.
The Marines are also testing robot dogs with a sentry remote weapon system and anti-tank rocket launchers. The United States isn’t the only country testing out robot dogs, as in May the Chinese military tested their robot dog with an assault rifle in Cambodia, as seen in a video. In the video, a soldier named Chen Wei said “It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our (human) members to conduct reconnaissance and identify (the) enemy and strike the target.”
The dogs are equipped with cameras that allow them to see and hear better than normal humans. It is still unknown if robot dogs will ever be deployed in a real battle. They also said that they were just testing the possibilities for combat in the future.
Related Stories:
https://interestingengineering.com/military/us-militarys-robot-dogs-with-rifles
https://thedefensepost.com/2024/10/02/us-army-robot-dogs/
https://futurism.com/the-byte/army-robot-dogs-guns-middle-east
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