The Marine Corps of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, in collaboration with the Naval Research Office, tested a four-legged robotic platform known as the “robotic goat.”
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The test fired an M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon rocket launcher from the robotic goat. The robotic goat can carry various sensors or weapons systems that would otherwise be carried by a marine.
“Instead of having a marine handle the weapons system, we could put a remote trigger mechanism on it that would allow everything to be done remotely,” said First Lieutenant Aaron Safadi, the officer in charge of the Emerging Technology Integration section at TTECG. “The marine could be behind cover and concealment, the weapons system could go to the frontline, and the marine could control the robot from a safe place, allowing this weapons system to approach its target.”
Large-scale exercises like the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Warfighting Exercise provide marines with the opportunity to test emerging technology in an unscripted force-on-force exercise. This allows marines to see how to implement new technologies and how to combat them as well. The robotic platforms being tested in the MWX can range from small unmanned aerial systems to the HDT Hunter Wolf, an unmanned vehicle weighing 2,200 pounds capable of transporting various sensors or heavy armament to the battlefield.
Marines have also started implementing virtual reality to aid in training. The Battle Simulation Center, in collaboration with the ONR, has developed virtual training technology to train Joint Tactical Air Controllers and Advanced Air Controllers in a safer, more cost-effective, and realistic environment for future war scenarios.
