How the US is doing MOUT in Iraq:
Robots earning stripes
BY DENIS D. GRAY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted on Monday, November 8, 2004
BAQOUBA, Iraq By the light of flashlights and a crescent moon,
the three-member crew catapults a 300-pound pilotless airplane into
the sky.
Minutes later, other U.S. soldiers behind a computer screen inside
a shed monitor video images from the plane, known as a Shadow, as
it loiters over a traffic circle frequently attacked by insurgent
bombers. "We fill some of the gaps in the intelligence field. We
put one of these in harms way instead of a soldier. Its all about
saving lives," said Sgt. Francisco Huereque, who is in charge of
the nights launch.
Unmanned aerial vehicles and other "stand-off" weapons, whether
currently used or in secret testing, belong to a developing
high-tech arsenal that the U.S. military says will help minimize
casualties as it battles insurgents.
Most of the systems are available for continued, if not
intensified, use as Iraqi forces train to take over the bulk of
combat operations from the Americans though when that will happen
remains uncertain.
More than 1,120 U.S. soldiers have died in the Iraq war at a
current rate of more than two each day.
In units like the 3 rd Brigade, 1 st Infantry Division, several
surveillance drones and specially equipped terrestrial vehicles are
deployed daily to protect soldiers against what persists as the
deadliest killer roadside explosives.
An armored, tractorlike vehicle called the Meerkat is often
dispatched to detect suspected improvised explosive devices, while
soldiers stand safely back. The South African-made vehicle, which
can be driven by a soldier or operated by remote control, can
withstand the simultaneous blast of three antitank mines, said
Staff Sgt. Darrell Theurer, a Bismarck, N. D., native.
Combing the roads around this provincial capital 35 miles north of
Baghdad, Theurers unit also trots out the Buffalo, a massive,
heavily armored machine that can run Meerkats by remote control and
plow through a minefield to scoop up explosives with its
retractable arm.
In other missions, robots are called in to shoot video of the
insides of cars suspected of carrying bombs.
The life-protecting technologies extend to the airwaves.
A system installed in humvees called Warlock, made by EDO Corp. of
New York, can jam signals from mobile telephones, garage-door
openers and other remote-control devices used by insurgents to
detonate explosives.
Officers say that without such technologies, casualties would
unquestionably be higher.
The Pentagon estimates that 40 percent of improvised explosive
devices are now discovered before rebels set them off.
Higher up the military chain from the brigade, still-classified
technology to ferret out roadside bombs is being tried out. In the
wings are other intelligence-gatherers that may or may not make it
to the Iraqi battlefield.
On the ground, other new unmanned vehicles are expected to enter
the field in coming years.
Among them is the Military RGator, built by tractor-maker Deere
& Co. and iRobot, which makes the far smaller remotecontrolled
PackBot robots already deployed to scout out dangerous locations
and dispose of explosives.
The R-Gator, set to begin full production in 2006, will be
autonomous, meaning it will navigate and perform some tasks without
any input from humans.
In the air, military officials are investigating the use of
stationary, spherical "spy in the sky" airships and a digital
camera packed into a mortar shell that transmits photos to a
soldiers laptop while the shell floats to the ground attached to a
parachute.
Unmanned aerial vehicles were flying over Iraq even before the war
began and now range from the high-altitude, very sophisticated
Global Hawk to the Raven, which comes in a carrying case and is
launched by just flipping it into the air.
The tiny Raven is 3 feet long, with a wingspan of 4 1/2 feet and
weighing 4 pounds. It can fly as far away as nine miles and stay in
the air for 80 minutes.
Military officials will not reveal the total number of unmanned
aerial vehicles being used in Iraq, citing operational
security.
But Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute
think tank in Washington, said he has heard that unmanned aerial
vehicles across all branches are performing about 400 sorties a day
in Iraq.
The U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., which
developed the Raven, said in May that more than 100 of the tiny
unmanned aerial vehicles were being deployed this year in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
It is clear from the troops on the ground that they will take as
many as they can get. "Its such a sought-after commodity, they
cant churn them out fast enough," said Sgt. Michael Lucas, a
pilotless-craft mission commander from Jerseyville, Ill. Soldiers
are also streaming out of the nine-month unmanned aerial vehicles
training school.
This brigade operates four Shadows, which are used mainly to snoop
for roadside explosives, car bombs, rebel mortar positions, urban
snipers and insurgents who might be stalking U.S. convoys.
Soldiers with Huereque, who is from Prineville, Ore., say a Shadow
will be in the air 45 minutes after an order is given, much quicker
than it takes for the unit to receive images from satellites.
One Shadow recently tracked a van driving from a mortar emplacement
as it dropped off four individuals at various points before
arriving at a house.
Alerted about what the Shadow had seen, ground troops moved in to
round up six insurgents who were carrying incriminating evidence:
the insurgents own video of mortars being fired at U.S. bases,
said 2 nd Lt. Liesel Himmelberger, who monitors real-time images
from unmanned aerial vehicles in the brigades operation
center.
It is also suspected that as a unmanned aerial vehicle flies
overhead, its mere sound described as "a lawnmower on steroids"
might help save lives. "If youre doing something nasty and you
have one buzzing over your head at 5,000 feet, you might just break
off," said Himmelberger, of Newburgh, N. Y.
The brigades intelligence officer, Maj. Kreg Schnell, said the
unit that replaces his when it leaves Iraq in February will be more
digitally advanced.
But Schnell, from Seattle, is skeptical about how many lives can be
saved as the Americans seek to put more unmanned machines in the
line of fire and relegate soldiers to the role of intelligence
collectors. "Its a force-oriented enemy that will still come after
us," Schnell predicted. "Economic and political well-being for the
Iraqis, that will save American lives."
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I believe it was reported that 3 SIR are also doing such evalaution
for future urban warfare! 
I am sure it will be something similar to what US is doing in
ME.
The future FIBUA tactics will be quite different as compare to how
we are trained now.
