
Defence chiefs spend £12m on anti-Taliban bomb disposal droids that topple over - georgecmu
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/3049690/Defence-chiefs-spend-12m-on-anti-Taliban-bomb-disposal-droids-that-topple-over.html
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georgecmu
It was originally designed for surveillance and reconnaissance operations: it
was very light and very fast. A soldier could carry it in a backpack, throw it
into a second story window or have it chase a car up to 30 mph.

Now they try to retrofit it for an entirely different use scenario; it's no
wonder it's a bad fit.

Also, I found it interesting that article did not mention the company that
makes them. Originally, DragonRunner was designed at Carnegie Mellon and
commercialized at the lab director's start-up in Pittsburgh. That company was
bought by Foster-Miller, which was bought by Qinetiq. Qinetiq happens to be a
spin-off of the British Ministry of Defence, which certainly explains the
lofty contract ($185K per unit!)

