CaMEL Gunbot From Northrup Grumman Provides Big Firepower And Tiny Profile [The CaMEL From Northrup Grumman Runs On A Touchscreen, Carries a .50 Caliber Machine Gun]

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It’s the kind of thing you might well expect to see in a science fiction movie, or even a video game, but the folks at Northrup Grumman have unveiled what might well (and frankly, hopefully will) prove to be a replacement for human soldiers–the CaMEL.

The CaMEL (that weird caps scheme denotes it’s actually a sort of portmanteau acronym for Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover) is the result of, apparently, someone’s need to boost the “wow factor” out at the Association of the US Army’s conference booth in Washington D.C. Originally, it was simply a carry-all device, as the name implies, moving fully 1200 pounds of gear at seven miles per hour. This by itself was regarded as a pretty good move, seeing as word says that the Israeli army has already contracted to buy at least 60 of the things themselves.

But the one you’re seeing in the picture above? That’s something of a new model, featuring the obvious difference of a .50 caliber M2 machine gun. What’s more, the gun can be fired remotely using touchscreen controls, and there’s a variety of possibilities that can be swapped out in place of the M2. Some have suggested the M249, the MK19 grenade launcher, even 30mm cannon as possible replacements (supplements?!) to the M2 already on there.

And these are reasonable concepts–after all, the thing carries 1200 pounds of hardware already, so why not stuff it to the gunnels with ammo and have it roll onto the battlefield, controlled by soldiers in perfect safety several hundred feet or more away? Imagine the reduction in loss of life…at least on the side that’s using these.

There’s no word as yet to expand the CaMEL program to make them the next generation of soldiers, but it’s certainly a possibility worth exploring. You may not see an end to war in your lifetime, but reducing the human cost of it sounds like the next best thing.

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