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Defence chiefs spend £12m on anti-Taliban bomb disposal droids that topple over
- georgecmu 16y agoIt was originally designed for surveillance and reconnaissance operations: it was very light and very fast. A soldier could carry it in a backpack, throw it into a second story window or have it chase a car up to 30 mph. Now they try to retrofit it for an entirely different use scenario; it's no wonder it's a bad fit. Also, I found it interesting that article did not mention the company that makes them. Originally, DragonRunner was designed at Carnegie Mellon and commercialized at the lab director's start-up in Pittsburgh. That company was bought by Foster-Miller, which was bought by Qinetiq. Qinetiq happens to be a spin-off of the British Ministry of Defence, which certainly explains the lofty contract ($185K per unit!)