U.S. Army is considering to replace some soldiers with robots to cut size of brigade 2301142

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Defence & Security News - United States

 
 
Thursday, January 23, 2014 11:25 AM
 
U.S. Army is considering to replace some soldiers with robots to cut size of brigade.
The United States Army is considering cutting down a brigade by 25 percent and replacing those soldiers with robots. General Robert Cone, head of the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, spoke at the Army Aviation Symposium last week about how the Army is considering cutting the size of a brigade from 4,000 to 3,000 soldiers.
     
The United States Army is considering cutting down a brigade by 25 percent and replacing those soldiers with robots. General Robert Cone, head of the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, spoke at the Army Aviation Symposium last week about how the Army is considering cutting the size of a brigade from 4,000 to 3,000 soldiers.
CHIMP, the CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform, carries a fire hose to connect it to a wall spigot. The robot from the Tartan Rescue team, CHIMP came in third overall in the competition.
     

Continuing, he noted that the Army had devoted more resources to "force protection," keeping the troops safe, at the cost of some firepower. "I think we’ve also lost a lot in lethality," Cone said.

Robots could reduce the force protection burden, giving the Army more killing power per brigade.

Generals are studying proposals as the U.S. army is to slim down from 540,000 to about 490,000 soldiers by the end of next year. Some reports suggest it could dip below 450,000 by the end of the decade.

On December 20-21, 2013, 16 teams were the main attraction at the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of United States) Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials, where they demonstrated their prototype robots’ ability to perform a number of critical real-world disaster-response skills. DARPA constructed eight tasks at the Homestead Speedway in Homestead, Fla., to simulate what a robot might have to do to safely enter and effectively work inside a disaster zone, while its operator would remain out of harm’s way.

“The DRC Trials demonstrated the difficulty of having robots conduct seemingly simple tasks in real-world situations, and the participation of the first responder community provided an important illustration of how technology can save lives,” said Brad Tousley, Director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.