Armed robots.

• Author: Hanley, Mike
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

I just read the article, "First Armed Ground Robot Readied for Deployment," in your June issue of National Defense. The article is excellent. However, I was disheartened to read in the story that the SWORDS robot is made up of only two commercial off-the-shelf items, the TALON and the M-249. Actually, there is a third COTS item, which is the real meat of the SWORDS system. It is the TRAP T-250 D lightweight remote weapon platform designed and manufactured by Precision Remotes, Inc.

PRI supplies the weapon pan tilt, the shock-mounted overview and targeting cameras, the weapon adapter and the trigger actuator, all of which are standard T-250D components. Foster-Miller then adds other pieces to enable wireless operation as well as some additional cameras.

In addition to SWORDS the T-250D mounts on any military vehicle with a pintle receiver...