Another article on the Talon (aka SWORDS) robot

The Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, or SWORDS, will be joining Stryker Brigade Soldiers in Iraq when it finishes final testing, said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, a bomb disposal test and evaluation NCOIC with the EOD Technology Directorate of the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

The system consists of a weapons platform mounted on a Talon robot, a product of the engineering and technology development firm Foster-Miller. Different weapons can be interchanged on the system – the M16, the 240, 249 or 50-caliber machine guns, or the M202 –A1 with a 66mm rocket launcher.

Soldiers operate the SWORDS by remote control, from up to 1,000 meters away. In testing, it’s hit bulls eyes from as far as 2,000 meters away, Tordillos said.

2102Z FRI 03DEC04. Army News Service.

Since the little guy costs $230K, I'm not expecting Santa Claus to bring me one with an M-2 mounted.

And how long can it be before we're reading about one of these things encountering a software error or just a short circuit and killing/wounding one or more of our own troops, non-combatants, or ragtags trying to surrender to it? What do we do then? Put it on trial? ;-)