FOR the past four weeks more than 200 troops have been deployed on Salisbury Plain working with observers from 17 nations including the US Army Experimental Force, during part of ongoing UK-US allied experimentation exercise AUTONOMOUS WARRIOR (LAND) – the British Army’s largest ever experiment involving robotics and autonomous systems (RAS).

This has been a collaborate experiment between the Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, International Allies and 47 industry partners experimenting with cutting edge RAS systems in an operational scenario.

I visited the exercise to see robots of all shapes and sizes operated by both service personnel and industry experts in very testing conditions.

They ranged in size from a Warriors Infantry Fighting Vehicle being driven remotely (although for safety reasons there was a soldier in the driver’s seat) to tiny Throwbots, little seeing robots that are thrown into rooms during operations in urban areas.

Introducing the exercise, the biggest AWE in the last five years, Colonel Peter Rowell, assistant head of capability strategy and force development, said that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) had been invited to bring their wares to work with soldiers and the military had not specified what we want.

“The applications that we are developing are as applicable for civil aid as they are to troops in combat,” said Colonel Rowell. “We are delivering a message, telling the enemy that we are developing new forms of warfare, we like unfair fights.”

I spoke to Lance Corporal of Horse Michael ‘Kiwi’ Hookham who is currently serving with 700X Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm who are the Royal Navy’s experimental squadron for developing unmanned flight.

He was flying ‘Instant Eye 3’ a small drone for reconnaissance ahead of troops. “I am in a reconnaissance regiment and this will enhance our capability giving us an additional tactical bound, it will make our movement more fluid and keep our guys out of harm’s way.”

Other robots on display included Titan Strike being developed by QinetiQ, a small tracked vehicle which mounts a 30mm canon and can be sent forward to deal with opposition.

Much work was being done on ‘Last Mile Resupply’ which aim to get vital combat supplies to the front line without endangering lives. Methods included tracked and wheeled vehicles and a wide range of drones that can carry loads in excess of 180 kilogrammes.

Rifleman Owen Stringer of The Rifles was operating the six wheeled Viking vehicle using a controller that looked just like the ones used for games consoles.

“It is very easy to operate,” said Owen. “I was able to operate it after just two lessons, it is just like playing by Xbox.”

The exercise was voted a great success by both the military and the civilian firms that were involved. The harsh conditions and realistic scenario proved a first-class testing ground for these new systems which will soon be added to the military armoury.