Officials have confirmed that the U.S. Army recently sent a “robot dog” equipped with an artificial-intelligence-powered gun turret to the Middle East as part of a counter-drone test.
Photos of the Ghost Robotics Vision 60 Quadrupedal-Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) were recently published on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service with the caption, “A Quadrupedal-Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) goes over rehearsals at Red Sands IEC in the CENTCOM AOR Sept. 18, 2024.”
The Q-UGV can be seen in pictures shared by Uncensored News on X, formerly Twitter.
Military.com reported that the pictures appear to show the Q-UGV armed with an AR-15/M16-pattern rifle mounted on a rotating turret. The outlet noted that the gun turret, which includes a targeting system featuring the label “Lone Wolf,” appears to be the same “artificial intelligence-enabled” targeting system that the Army recently tested during Operation Hard Kill in August at Fort Drug in New York.
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The military previously released pictures from Operation Hard Kill, describing the robot dog as a “four-legged unmanned ground vehicle (UGVs) armed with an artificial intelligence-enabled rifle operated by industry partners contributing to innovative unmanned capabilities.” The military explained that Operation Hard Kill was an opportunity for the 10th Mountain Division to work with industry partners to “develop and test a collaborative system to facilitate c-UAS training on Fort Drum.”
According to Military.com, a U.S. Army Central spokesperson confirmed that the robot dog was one of multiple “non-Counter-sUAS” systems that were tested in addition to 15 counter-drone platforms during September’s test at Red Sands. The anonymous spokesperson also told Military.com that the artificial intelligence-enabled gun was tested with multiple static ground targets.
Task and Purpose previously reported that the United States military has been slowly incorporating robot dogs into military operations for several years. The outlet noted that Q-UGVs are currently used in explosive ordnance disposal, providing security at military installations, and increasing the military’s surveillance, intelligence, reconnaissance, and target acquisition capabilities.
According to Military.com the Q-UGV recently tested by the U.S. Army could eventually be used to aid U.S. military members in conducting counter-drone missions by using artificial intelligence to identify, track, and take down hostile drones with better accuracy than the average service member.
