Die US-Armee testet im Nahen Osten bewaffnete Roboterhunde

“IDF reportedly deployed robot dogs fitted with aerial drones earlier this year

Photos shared by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) show one such four-legged robot going over “rehearsals” at the Red Sand Dunes area near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has a joint military research facility.

The quadrupedal unmanned vehicle can be seen mounted with what appears to be an [AR-15](https://www.the-independent.com/topic/ar-15)/M16-pattern rifle on a rotating turret and resembles the robot system the US Army tested at Fort Drum, New York in August.

The US defence department has been incorporating robot dogs and other autonomous ground vehicles in its formations over the last few years.

Boston Dynamics was the first to pioneer the vision of robot dogs, launching its first four-legged prototype “BigDog” in 2005 in partnership with Nasa and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Boston Dynamics later said it would [not support weaponisation](https://www.the-independent.com/tech/boston-dynamics-robot-dogs-human-b2198127.html) of the technology, urging its peers to join the pledge.

But several other companies continue to make similar autonomous systems for [military purposes.](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/robot-dogs-us-mexico-border-b2019706.html)

It was one of several autonomous systems that the army tested along with 15 other “counter-drone platforms” at Red Sands last month.”