The Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) is on display at the Lockheed booth at the AUSA 2009 convention. It is a smaller, light infantry version of Lockheed's 3.5-ton Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment (MULE) robot vehicle for mounted/convoy operations. But while the SMSS may be the MULE's smaller cousin, it's not exactly petite, weighing 5,000 pounds and capable of lugging a 1,000-pound payload.From War Is Boring:
On Oct. 27, 2004, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself up alongside a U.S. Army flatbed truck in Balad, in north-central Iraq. The blast killed the truck’s driver, Staff Sgt. Jerome Lemon, from the South Carolina-based 1052nd Transportation Company.
Nearly five years later, at a sandy outdoor range at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an unassuming orange-and-black-painted forklift approached and lifted a pallet of mock munitions, as an audience of Army officers looked on. It might have looked like any day at any austere supply depot, but for one thing: the forklift had no driver.
My Comment: A long but detailed post on the importance of robotic systems in delivering supplies and assisting in logistics. Kudos to the War is Boring blog for this post.