Brief survey on using robots in a COIN environment

[MountainRunner]

In line with a project I'm working on right now and following up on the FCS discussion elsewhere on the board, I've put together a short survey on armed robots in a COIN environment. By no means is it comprehensive, but it should be useful. Hopefully Marc won't find too many problems with it . It should take no more than 2-3 minutes of your time, maybe 5 if you're on the phone.

Survey: Using Robots in War

Thanks in advance for filling it out. The results will be included in my presentation next week at the Proteus workshop at Carlisle Barracks (Panel III). It would be great to meet people on the board in person. If you're at the workshop or on base, drop me an email.

[Stan]

Just sent my response having used armed robots for 12 years.

Basically, criminals don't care. The human voice and CCTV with the robot makes it human. The fact there's a 12 ga. attached means little. Some have fired at ours with AK rounds, til magazines were empty, other just blew the whole thing off as a cheap threat.

In order to be "spooked" out of your shorts, you'd have to be a tad crazy, and most of our Russian criminals are rather smart.

Dunno, maybe it'll work in Iraq, but not here.

[Cavguy]

While I'm not sure about my feelings regarding armed robots, I was a convert on my last tour to their utility.

We had two MARCBOT's, basically remote controlled cars with a camera linked to a laptop. My guys used them while on patrol to investigate IED's. Nothing's worse than a local pointing to a pile of trash and saying "there's an IED there", calling EOD, waiting 2 hours, only to find a pile of trash. The MARCBOT allowed non-EOD soldiers to investigate suspicious items without endangering themselves. We lost one of our MARCBOT's, "Johnny 5" gave his existence up probing a daisy chain IED in Tal Afar ..... And probably saved my guys. So I'm a believer.

Every patrol should have a MARCBOT or similar available.