UK To Create Army Of Robo-Soldiers By 2008
LONDON: Britain’s infantrymen are to be turned into high-tech “robo-soldiers” in a 1-billion-pounds project to create one of the world’s most technologically advanced armies.
The scheme will see the army’s traditional helmets, uniforms and riflesscrapped. Instead, soldiers will bristle with gadgets including a gun capable of shooting around corners, a computerised helmet that can download maps, and a whisper-sensitive radio implanted in the ear.
The project will be confirmed next month by the Ministry of Defence. The officer overseeing the project, Lt Col Dave Stewart, said the project, codenamed Fist (for Future Integrated Soldier Technology), aimed to turn everything a soldier wears or carries into an “integrated fighting system” with every component linked to the rest. The first such kits could be introduced from 2008, with the whole army modernised by 2012.
At its heart will be a computerised gun capable of firing grenades or bullets and equipped with a display screen enabling a soldier to aim it from around corners or over walls without exposing his head or body.
The gun, equipped with laser rangefinders and thermal-imaging equipment, may even have voice controls and a radio link enabling it to be fired remotely from several feet away. The soldier’s helmet will include a pull-down visor capable of displaying aerial views of the battlefield with the soldier’s position and those of colleagues.
• Story originally published by:
The Sunday Times, London via The Times of India / Delhi - July 020.02 |
