Special Ops robots now do psychological warfare

By Lewis Page
www.theregister.co.uk

US arms globocorp Boeing has announced yet another military robot demonstration – but this time, one with a difference. Rather than spying on meatsacks or mowing them down with the traditional array of automated weaponry, the war-bots in this trial sought to win over their fleshy opponents using psychological warfare.

The demo was carried out for the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), the organisation which runs the noted Green Berets, Rangers etc.

“Working with USASOC, we were able to pull together a team to demonstrate this integrated, multimodal operation in just 45 days,” says Boeing bigwig Vic Sweberg. “We brought together hardware and software from five different contractors into a single system that allowed the control of different unmanned systems capabilities to accomplish a particular mission.”

Apart from its legions of hardy throatcutters, USASOC is also in charge of the US Army’s active psychological-warfare troops.

It seems that a small robot helicopter and an unmanned R-Gator jeep/buggy affair from John Deere were selected to deliver a blistering onslaught of pro-US propaganda. Boeing says the two machine warriors carried out an “electro-optical/infrared, audio, and leaflet drop mission”. Read more…

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