Iraq's Bomb Clearing Robots

Posted 14 Aug 2007 at 14:29 UTC by Rog-a-matic

With a slightly misleading title, this article at Time entitled Iraq's Coming Robot Wars might lead one to believe the subject was robotic warriors, but instead, the article goes on to explain how the Army is boosting their purchases of bomb-clearing robots up to 1000 by the end of the year, with a possible 2000 more later on. Since almost 50% of the U.S. troups killed are victims of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), this move makes a lot of sense, as does the strategery of eliminating some of the hoops suppliers must jump through to get a new product approved. Prototypes for testing are expected to be available within only 10 days of the contract award.