This article taken from the July 19, 2010 edition of the Marine Corps Times
An unmanned, tactical golf cart is among gear undergoing tests this month that could reduce the load Marines have to carry while downrange.
Other examples include a high-tech radio system the size of a BlackBerry and a remote-controlled machine gun.
The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab is testing the gear during an experiment within small-unit teams deployed to austere locations.
Called Limited Objective Experiment-4, the tests are occurring at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows in Hawaii and about 20 miles away in parts of the Kahuku Mountains. It is piggybacking on the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercises, which includes 14 participating nations and 34 ships.
The experiment marks the culmination of six years of studies at the war-fighting lab, based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., that started in 2004 with a look at distributed operations — a form of maneuver warfare where small units can gain the advantage over the enemy by spreading out over large areas — and has evolved to today’s focus of empowering small units and giving them the tools they need to operate more efficiently, said Vince Goulding, the director of MCWL’s experiments division.
A closer look at the gear:
• No ordinary golf cart. The Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate, or GUSS, can be programmed to follow Marines on patrol while toting up to 500 pounds of equipment. GUSS can be operated autonomously or driven by a Marine, and it can be programmed to return to a home base on its own. Goulding said four vehicles are being used in the experiment to conduct autonomous resupply and limited casualty movement missions.
• RoboMarine. The Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System, or MAARS, is a remotely operated M240G machine gun with remote targeting and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that offer Marines more situational awareness. The 300-pound robot, an improved version of the SWORDS robot the Army used in Iraq, can travel 7 mph and fire one-at-a-time like a sniper or up to 400 rounds at once.
• Tactical comms. Goulding said each rifle squad participating in the experiment is receiving a Distributed Tactical Communications System, a radio that provides on-the-move, beyond line-of-sight tactical communications with about a 200-mile range. That’s a vast improvement over existing tactical communication systems, most of which are still just line-of-sight, Goulding said. The experimental gear also tells company commanders where their squads are located — a necessity when calling in fire support at the company level, he added.
The TrellisWare TW-220 is another piece in the tactical communications suite. It allows Marines to link with everyone in their squad. The BlackBerry-sized radio doesn’t operate over the horizon. But by linking to other members of your squad, Marines can create a network that expands indefinitely, as long as they have a buddy in sight.
