First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq

An anonymous reader writes: Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any warzone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready to a while, but safety concerns kept 'em off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already.