By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
It was an exercise that had it all – robot dogs, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) with dual miniguns and a radar system apparently designed to detect drones, and an Apache helicopter that took out a small drone in what may have been an unprecedented event.
It was the latest version of the Red Sands exercise that the US and Saudi Arabia have been holding twice a year. The drills were held at the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia, a country that is all too familiar with being attacked by unmanned aerial systems – the Saudis have been fighting off drone attacks by the Houthis for several years.
The US is now on the receiving end of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, with the Shia Islamist group launching drones and cruise and ballistic missiles against Navy ships.
Interestingly, the Pentagon published photos and videos of last month’s Red Sands exercise, but didn’t come out with any details of what went on. Still, the visuals provided some clues.
The robot dog was featured prominently. Officially known as the Quadrupedal-Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV), it’s shown with a version of the M4A1 automatic rifle which could be used to shoot down small drones.
Last spring, the US Marines tested robot dogs built by Ghost Electronics. The dogs are armed with an artificial intelligence-powered gun system from Onyx Industries. That system uses digital imaging capable of autonomously detecting and tracking humans, drones or vehicles, and reporting targets to a human operator who could be based anywhere around the globe.
The key is that the robot cannot fire the weapon on its own – the human operator remains in control of firing decisions.
Meanwhile, the US Army’s Development Command-Armaments Center (DEVCOM-AC) displayed several new systems at Red Sands.
One was the Mission Master XT, an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle built by Germany’s Rheinmetall. It has dual M134D 7.62 mm miniguns that are linked to what appeared to be a small radar antenna that could be used to track drones.
Rheinmetall says the vehicle can be used for reconnaissance and surveillance operations, along with fire support and medical evacuations. It can transport payloads of up to 2,000 pounds and travel 750 kilometers without refueling.
There also were photos of Oshkosh’s MRAP-All Terrain Vehicle, with a counter-UAS system known as Crows Blade (Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station/Ballistic Low Altitude Drone Engagement System). The US Army has been testing it since 2019.
The Army also took an older system – the AH-64 Apache helicopter – and had it perform some new tricks. A photo from Red Sands showed an Apache firing a AGM-114 Hellfire missile at what was described as a “small-UAS.” According to The Aviationist, this might have been the first time the Army used a Hellfire in this sort of engagement.
