U.S. Marines Experimenting With Unmanned Ground Vehicles – UGVs Could Be Headed To Afghanistan

The Mobile Detection Assessment Response System surveys the area around the expeditionary airfield at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., on Feb. 6. (Cpl. D.J. Wu / Marine Corps)

March 9, 2014. David Pugliese - Defence Watch

The Marine Corps Times is reporting that the Corps is experimenting with a new unmanned ground vehicle that can patrol installations and detect intruders or potential enemy forces nearly a mile away.

More from the Marine Corps Times:

The Mobile Detection Assessment Response System, or MDARS, was used in late January to successfully secure an air base during the latest Integrated Training Exercise — the final predeployment workup all units conduct at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. The vehicle could be headed to Afghanistan, according to its developers, although concrete plans have not been made.

A field demonstration of MDARS began Jan. 30 at the combat center’s Camp Wilson. The vehicle successfully aided members of Marine Aircraft Group 13 and Marine Wing Support Squadron 374 to patrol the area immediately surrounding their airfield as a mock enemy force tried to probe their defenses.

During the first night, the vehicle was autonomously navigating around the base — by heading to predetermined waypoints — when guards in one tower detected two potential enemy soldiers, said Pat Culliton, the MDARS program manager with San Diego-based Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific.

“We were operating between two towers and one of the towers reported some activity,” Culliton said. “From the operator control station you just click a button and say go there.”

Full story here