Army to call up small robots for combat duty

It’s no secret that the military increasingly will depend on innvations such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other high-tech solutions to carry the fight to the enemy, but it seems that automated warfighting is being accelerated into the ranks.

The U.S. Army’s Brigade Combat Team Modernization program is apparently looking to provide regular Army line units with small robots that can search buildings, small hovering UAVs and robot missile launchers in 2010, as soon as they can start cranking them out, the Register reports.

The new program is the replacement for the funding-challenged Future Combat System, which was axed last year because of cost concerns. Some parts of that program’s ambitious robot plans were dropped, but it seems the powers want regular grunts to go robotic as soon as possible.

At the same time, however, there are reminders about what all of this tech might mean on the downside. UAVs are up there gathering intelligence, and maybe too much of it. Apparently analysts are struggling to cope with the flood of data the drones are collecting.