by David Crane
defrev at gmail dot com
August 4, 2008
While we were reading through the June 2008 issue of Defense Technology International (Dti) magazine, we came across an ad for the Guardium UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), which is made by G-NIUS Unmanned Ground Systems (GUGS) Ltd. out of Israel.
The Guardium UGV, being billed as "the world’s 1st operational autonomous UGV system", is a high-speed perimeter-security ground robot designed for protecting high-value targets like…
military bases, airfields, airports, power facilities (including nuclear power plants), etc. DefenseReview assumes the system can be weaponized, but we haven’t interviewed anyone at G-NIUS (pronounced "geniu", get it?), yet. If the Guardium UGV isn’t weaponized, Defense Review believes it should be, and can’t see any reason not to do so, unless the Israelis are worried about the robot being disabled and disarmed by enemy forces, as has happened with SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System), i.e. the armed/weaponized Talon robot made by Foster-Miller. DefenseReview has been told by U.S. Army Special Forces (SF) contacts of ours that some U.S. Army personnel operating in Afghanistan have jokingly referred to SWORDS as the "Taliban Resupply Vehicle" (TRV) for this reason. Apparently, Taliban fighters will hide and wait for the weaponized Talon robot/SWORDS to roll by, sneak up on it, tip it over, remove the machine gun (or any other weapon) and ammo from it, and then use it/them against U.S. forces. Anyway, we’ll try to glean some info on the weaponization capability of Guardium.
Anyway, the Israelis claim that the Guardium UGV is capable of "enduring fail-proof operation in ‘dull, dangerous and dirty’ scenarios." Guardium’s command and control subsystem can be seamlessly integrated with end-users’ fixed and mobile C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence) infrastructures.
Click here to watch the Guardium UGV Promo Video
Company Conact Info:
G-NIUS Unmanned Ground Systems (UGS) LTD
9 Einstien St.Advanced Technology Park
Nes-Ziona
P.O. Box 1165
Israel
76111
+972-8-9308402 Office
+972-8-9308420 Fax
marketing@g-nius.co.il Email
http://www.g-nius.co.il/ Website
G-NIUS Unmanned Ground Systems Ltd. is a IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.) and Elbit Systems company.
Related Articles, Links, and Videos:
Enguard! Introducing the Guardium UGV (Defense Update)