(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The robots are coming—or at least that’s what a recent article from Defense News indicates.
The publication reported Monday that the Army is seeking $33 for its 2025 budget to fund “human-machine integrated formations,” or H-MIF, which are essentially robots designed to do the work of humans.
According to Defense News, the Army demonstrated its H-MIF technologies at Fort Irwin, California—home to the National Training Center—in March for a large exercise known as Project Convergence. The military news outlet described what happened during the demonstration.
“Looking like a toy helicopter, a small black drone rose up over a cluster of adobe buildings in a quiet desert village, emitting a faint buzz … Another followed,” Defense News reported.
“All at once, an overwhelming group of air- and ground-based machine fighters burst onto the scene. An ‘octocopter’ lumbered through the sky with precision munitions and other robots attached to its belly, dropping three 60mm mortar rounds on a roof and other small, hand-held, cylindrical ‘throwbots’ on the ground,” the outlet added.
“Robotic combat vehicles rolled into view, armed with .50-caliber and M240 machine guns, firing on enemy positions and providing cover for troops maneuvering into the village. Meanwhile, a four-legged dog robot stepped out from a thick cloud of smoke, giving the soldiers monitoring from afar another view.”
Officials are still reportedly working the bugs out of their H-MIF tech, but said the use of it in combat scenarios could be coming sooner than most people expect.
The Defense News article follows a December report from the Military Times, which said that efforts to incorporate robots in the military have reached a breakthrough, and are now being used in dangerous combat scenarios.
The Military Times reported that the Army’s MCOE Experimental Company, 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, 316th recently conducted an urban assault. Like Defense News, the Military Times described the situation in vivid detail.
“Instead of human soldiers rushing across open areas and bursting into buildings, robots took the lead … 20 soldiers with four robotic vehicles were able to cross the open terrain to reach the building. But first robots with smoke generators created a screen,” the publication reported.
“At the same time, robot vehicles with tethered drones jammed enemy signals and extended the soldiers’ network. Small drones dropped robotic ground vehicles with cameras atop buildings to scout the interior while even smaller aerial drones entered windows, scanning the inside of the structure and transmitting back a “blueprint” of the building to soldiers on the ground,” the publication added.
“Then robot “dogs” with cameras of their own, entered the building looking for hazards and seeking out enemy troops.”
In the meantime, members of Congress are proposing another way to address military recruitment shortfalls. Democratic U.S. Senators are pushing to allow illegal immigrants to serve in the armed forces in exchange for granting them citizenship.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
