US military looks at hopping bombs
An 'intelligent' minefield made up of bouncing bombs each understanding the concept of zone defence is how one group of US scientists envisage future defence strategy.
As reported in New Scientist, Rush Robinett and colleagues at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque New Mexico, are developing robotic anti-tank mines that can plug gaps in minefields by hopping about.
"I was catching grasshoppers to go trout fishing when I noticed that they jump around in a random fashion, hit the ground in an arbitrary orientation, then right themselves and jump again," he says. "I said to myself: 'I can build a robot that can do that.'" said Robinett.
Robinett says hopping has a distinct advantage over more conventional means of getting about.
"Robots with wheels and tracks can't crawl over things more than a fraction of the dimension of their body. A hopping robot can clear things that are ten to one hundred times its body dimension."
The mines will have a powerful piston-driven foot attached to their base which their developers say, will propel them more than 10 metres into the air.
The researchers believe the self-righting mines will be able to detect the distance to their neighbours by using ultrasonic sensors and will be able to communicate by radio. Therefore, if some of the mines are removed or destroyed to make a path through the minefield, the remaining mines will recognise they are missing and hop around until they form a regular pattern again.
However, the project has its sceptics. Tony Howgate of the Battlefield Engineering Wing at Britain's Ministry of Defence is quoted in the article as saying "This isn't going to be cheap or simple and the more complicated it gets, the more unreliable it'll be".
He also wonders what will stop the hopping mines going astray and asks, "How are you going to know where they've hopped to?"
Ironically, the technology is being developed because the US plans to sign up to the Ottawa Convention, which bans antipersonnel landmines.
Anti-personnel mines are often used to protect anti-tank minefields against soldiers who try to clear a route. However, after the US sign the Ottawa Convention in 2006 - already signed by 135 countries - anti-tank minefields will have to be protected by other means.
