Marine Gladiator charges ahead.After splitting from a joint ground robotics program with the U.S. Army, the Marines decided to build their own unmanned combat vehicle, called the Gladiator. "The Army chose FCS [future combat systems], and the Marines said they can't wait that long. They needed something sooner, so we settled for much less capability," said Marine Col. Terry Griffin, program manager for unmanned ground systems. Carnegie Mellon and Lockheed Martin are competing to build the first Gladiator prototypes for the upcoming system development and demonstration phase, and both are demonstrating their vehicles at the Quantico Marine base, in Virginia. The Office of Naval Research The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR), headquartered in Arlington, Virginia (Ballston), is the office within the U.S. Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S. awarded the two companies the contract to develop the second phase of the program. The Carnegie Mellon consortium received $2.3 million, while Lockheed Martin received 52 million. According to Larry Hennebeck, the Gladiator program manager at the Robotic-Systems Joint Project Office, the SDD (Software Design Description) The architecture of an information system. See IDD. phase is a few months away and a contract award for that part of the program is planned for this summer. Gladiator could be in operation by 2008. At press time, Griffin was waiting for funds to be approved for the 2006 budget. The Gladiator is supposed to provide the Marine Air-Ground Task Force The Marine Corps principal organization for all missions across the range of military operations, composed of forces task-organized under a single commander capable of responding rapidly to a contingency anywhere in the world. with a remote-control operated semi-autonomous ground vehicle for remote reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition For the RSTA/ISTAR/STA doctrine, see . For Artillery STA, see . For the USMC snipers, see . , as well as nuclear, biological and chemical reconnaissance obstacle breaching and tiring capability. Almost the size of an all-terrain vehicle, the Gladiator system will consist of a mobile and survivable ground-based mobile base unit, interchangeable mission modules, and a man-portable operator control unit. The OCU will allow the Marines to operate the Gladiator and will display, store and disseminate data. The Gladiator currently comes in two variants-wheels and tracks. These are concept validation models built in-house at the Aviation and Missile Command's Research Development and Engineering Center, said Hennebeck. The system will be able to perform both lethal and non-lethal direct fire missions, according to Griffin. For the lethal punch, it will use the M240 G Medium Machine Gun A medium machine gun or MMG in modern terms, usually refers to a belt-fed, full-power rifle caliber (such as 7.62 mm rifle caliber) automatic weapon with some provision for more extended firing than lighter automatic firearms, often using an extra-heavy barrel, fins, , M249 Squad Automatic weapon The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (M249 SAW) is the United States military designation for a sub-family of the FN Minimi squad automatic weapon (from Mini-mitrailleuse French: "mini-machine gun". Both are 5. and Uzi sub-machine gun, while the non-lethal package includes the FN303, Light Vehicle Obscuration Smoke System and VENOM. In hindsight, the power packed on the robot could have saved the Iraqi museums from the looting that followed the fall of Baghdad The Fall of Baghdad may refer to the following:
n. War materiel, especially weapons and ammunition. Often used in the plural. tr.v. mu·ni·tioned, mu·ni·tion·ing, mu·ni·tions To supply with munitions. when all else failed. Gladiator concept validation models have been used operationally to develop tactics and procedures at Camp Lejeune, N.C.. Camp Pendleton, Calif., and 29 Palms, Calif. |
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