The US Army appears to have deployed rifle-toting robot dogs to the Middle East to undergo ground testing in a new environment.
A photo shared recently by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service shows a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 quadrupedal-unmanned ground vehicle (Q-UGV) maneuvering at the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia.
The robot is equipped with what seems to be an AR-15/M16-pattern rifle mounted on a rotating turret at its front end.
According to a spokesperson from US Central Command, the Q-UGV engaged several static ground targets during the trials, but he did not disclose the results of the tests.
Notably, the same unmanned platform was unveiled by the army in August during Operation Hard Kill, featuring a weapon enabled by artificial intelligence.
New Test Range?
The escalating threats in the Middle East seem to have transformed the region into a prime test range for new US-made defense systems.
The spokesperson revealed that apart from the Q-UGV, 15 other counter-drone weapons were recently tested in Saudi Arabia.
In March, the US Army sent its Stryker-mounted laser weapon prototypes to the Middle East to test their “real-world applicability.”
The service also demonstrated its “Dronebuster” portable counter-drone system in a military exercise in Jordan.
Additionally, the US Air Force deployed its Unmanned Long-Endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft (ULTRA) for the first time in the United Arab Emirates to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.
