The Polish movie "Blood Warsaw" once had a very shocking plot: the Polish rebels captured a small German tank, and when it was displayed in the crowd, it suddenly exploded, and the dense crowd was blown into a rain of blood.
This small tank is actually a German ammunition carrier equipped with remote-controlled bombs, and the Similar Remote Control Self-Detonation Vehicle developed by Germany in World War II is more famous as the "Goliath".
The Goliath self-detonation vehicle is a wire-guided remotely controlled pocket-sized unmanned tank used to clear mines and blast fortifications. It is worth noting that the German Tiger heavy tank battalions tended to incorporate a large number of such pocket-sized unmanned tanks.
However, remote-controlled self-detonating pocket tanks are short-lived in history and rarely appear after World War II. However, Australia has recently launched a robot remote control self-detonation car, which is almost a new generation of "Goliath".
"Skua-c"
On November 4, Australian robot vehicle manufacturer Gaardtech announced that it will complete the manufacture of the "Jaeger-c" robot chariot in 2022 and demonstrate it to the Australian Army. Similar robot tanks are often used for carrying or reconnaissance purposes, but the Skua-c is a suicide vehicle for anti-tank and anti-personnel use.
The "Skua-c" is a very small wheeled robot with a low profile and strong traffic ability, which is convenient for concealed ambushes. Therefore, the Forbes network review article said that this unmanned combat vehicle is also regarded as a "movable intelligent mine".
"Skua-c" prototype
When deployed, the Skua-c ambushes in gaard mode (a long-term silent surveillance mode) until it detects a potential target, and then switches to "chariot mode" or "Goliath mode" (suicide mode) depending on whether the target is a person or a vehicle.
Since the Australian manufacturer claims that "Skua-c" can not only be controlled remotely, but also can be operated autonomously "through image analysis and training models related to robot movements", it is simply "deep learning function". Objectively speaking, this learning function is increasingly used for automatic target recognition by military robots, which is a very dangerous trend.
Weapons pod carried by a four-legged robot of the U.S. Army
In vehicle mode, the Skua-c robot engages the target using an unknown weapon, which is speculated to be a 7.62 mm machine gun, or it may be similar to the 6.5 mm sniper rifle in the pod of a special-purpose unmanned rifle recently installed by the United States in the quadruped robot.
In Goliath mode, the Skua-c will perform a "kamikaze attack" (forbes original) on people or vehicles, which is used exactly the same as the German Goliath remote-controlled vehicle in World War II, but the level of automation and power has far exceeded the latter.
The first is the power, the "Skua-c" uses a concentrated energy armor-breaking charge, the size is unknown, but at least comparable to the "Light Javelin" anti-tank missile, and has the innate advantage of attacking the weak abdomen of the tank.
Goliath blew himself up
The second is the target capture ability, the "Goliath" in World War II uses more than 1000 meters of remote control wires, which is also the biggest weakness, once cut off will lose its effect. The "Skua-c" can operate autonomously and semi-autonomously, and even if there is interference between the remote control personnel and the self-detonating robot, the "Skua-c" can complete the attack autonomously.
In addition to maneuverability, the "Goliath" can only reach a speed of 5 km / h, very slow. The lightweight and flexible "Skua-c" has a speed of up to 80 km / h, which may be affected in actual combat, but it is enough to make the target difficult to avoid. Not only that, but Australian arms dealers are also considering adding bulletproof capabilities to the "Skua-C".
"Skua-c" for ballistic testing
Previously, public images showed a "Skua-c" robot completed multiple rounds of 7.62 mm rifle strafing at a target 50 meters away after being attacked by gunshots.
Considering that the United States and European countries are actively developing combat robots, Australia's "Skua-c" is clearly a product that follows this trend, and has a unique advantage in terms of mobility and anti-elasticity. Due to the automatic target recognition and autonomous attack capabilities, the so-called "Three Principles of Robots" do not exist in such combat robots. (Author: Tao Mujian)