Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Reachback for the Entire Crew

South Korea has an armed unmanned ground vehicle prototype:

South Korean defence prime Hanwha has taken the opportunity at the DX Korea 2018 land forces exhibition to unveil a new 6×6 unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) prototype that will be further developed to meet a future requirement of the Republic of Korea Army (RoKA). ...

The prototype UGV can carry a payload of about 1 tonne and has been shown with a stabilised remote weapon station (RWS) armed with an S&T Motiv 12.7 mm K6 heavy machine gun, although it can be outfitted with other weapons depending on mission requirements.

Clearly it is possible to remotely operate a weapon station from outside the vehicle as I suggested for our future infantry fighting vehicles in some situations where the infantry is a potential casualty list rather than an asset needed for dismounted fighting.

Unless the vehicle drags a cable along a track or is otherwise tethered to some location for point defense. But it is called a combat vehicle so it doesn't seem like it is that limited.