Dogs of war armed and dangerous

William Shakespeare first coined the phrase: “ Let slip the dogs of war,” said Mark Antony in Act 3 of Julius Caesar, calling for those involved in the assassination of the Roman Emperor to be hunted down. The phrase “dogs of war” then became associated with foreign mercenaries after a novel of that name by Frederick Forsyth. Now there are real dogs of war after a company in the US developed a robotic canine fitted with a gun that can fire precision rounds to a range of nearly 4,000ft. The robot dog, or quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicle (Q-UGV), is already in service at one US Air Force base, carrying out perimeter patrols although not as yet armed with the rifle. The gun-toting robot dog, designed by Ghost Robotics , based in Philadelphia, was unveiled at an army convention in Washington. The gun, a 6.5mm Creedmoor hunting rifle made by SWORD international in Nevada, was introduced as a special purpose unmanned rifle (SPUR). The rifle can be instructed by remote control to put rounds in the chamber and fire them and it has a sighting system on top, potentially ideal for urban warfare operations where it is difficult for soldiers to gain access. While critics might warn of the risks posed by the military becoming too reliant on Terminator-style robotic systems, the Pentagon is increasingly enthusiastic about removing the human being from warfighting platforms, whether they be fighter jets, warships, armoured vehicles or underwater systems. An armed robotic quadruped is just the latest manifestation of an unstoppable progression towards unmanned warfare. The 325th Security Forces Squadron at Tyndall air force base in Florida was the first unit to adopt the unarmed robot quadruped for security patrolling, at a cost of around $130,000 per dog. “These dogs will be an extra set of eyes and ears while computing large amounts of data at strategic locations throughout Tyndall air force base,” Major Jordan Criss, the unit commander, said in a statement in November last year when the dogs first appeared on site. The robot runs on ten watts of power and can travel more than six miles on a single charge, and Ghost Robotics is developing kennels for the robot dogs to enter for recharging.