Robot dogs are no longer those creatures intended for children's entertainment. Now its use is military. From dogs with flamethrowers to those that accompany the police on the street, to those that detect buried mines. And now comes, from China, the last of these monstrosities: the Golden Dragon, a robot dog with a machine gun and capable of leading combat teams.
The station State-owned China Central Television has published a video showing the Golden Dragon (officially the Go2 model, priced at 2,800 euros, from the Chinese robotics company Unitree), jumping and running, while leading reconnaissance teams and shooting with a machine gun anchored to its back.
“It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations – the video points out -, replacing our members to conduct reconnaissance and identify the enemy and attack the objective.”
According to the report, the quadrupedal robodogs, about 15 kilos, they have a battery to act on their own between two and four hours. The video also shows a series of aerial drones, classified as “unmanned intelligent equipment.” Several of these drones were seen equipped with machine guns and can also be seen firing.
While deadly drone warfare isn't exactly new, quadruped robot dogs are a much more recent addition to the battlefield. And although some robotics companies, most notably Boston Dynamics, They have promised not to turn their robotic dogs into weaponsother companies do not share those same values.
In that sense, China is not the only world power interested in lethal robot dogs either. Last year, following a report that the U.S. military itself was experimenting with Ghost Robotics' armed robot dogs, an Army spokesperson said in an interview that the military branch “continues to explore the application of human-machine integration and all possibilities when it comes to transformative capabilities for future combat formations.” Translation: yes, we are testing robo-dogs with weapons.