Anti Robot infantry tactics

[Zor]

Its sometime within the next fifty years and the world still has its conflicts. For the most part the weapons of war have remained very much the same, rifles, machineguns, pistols and such guns still fire chemically propelled bullets, body armor is better than normal but armor piercing bullets have advanced, miniaturization has allowed a greater deal of Integration of things and such. However, while infantry still have their importance, they have been supplemented by a new form of military hardware, Robots.

Currently, the EU, China, Russia, the USA, Japan and other prominent nations with advanced have devised and began producing category of infantry war robot on these lines. The average war robot is quadruped, around a meter tall and weighs around 100-175 kilograms (and as such can act like infantry). The robots are normally equipped with an rifle caliber machine gun with about 500 rounds and can be fitted with RPGs, Grenade Launchers, Sniper rifles and other weapons on a modal top mounted turret and they are quite accurate (at least as good as a human soldier with said weapon) when firing and are able to sustain full automatic fire while moving and are equipped with various sensor systems (Visual Light, Radar, IR, Night Vision and such). Each Robot also possesses an telescopic arm mounted on the underside of the Turret for planting bombs, removing bombs, opening doors and other such tasks that require manipulation. They can run at speeds in the 40-45km/h range and can be outfitted with cables for repelling down walls and if they are in close quarters they have retractable blades near their feet. They are also heavily armored and are for the most part (baring an shot at hard to hit area), impervious against standard Assault Rifle fire. There big disadvantage is AI, they are about as smart as dogs and while they are capable of doing basic duties such as patrolling outside a base, but for complex operations they need human supervision and direction and for field operations, this means a human commander operating a fire group of them, but they are still dangerous even without human guidance and can remain operational for 3-4 days before needing to be refueled/recharged.

Let’s say that there is a conflict in which Special Forces (which is still a human dominated field) are sent out against a military force occupying a nation with large numbers of these robots and has taken forests and cities. What weapons and tactics would be best suited against said robots?

Zor

[weemadando]

Give every second man a surplus Carl Gustav. Give the other a lot of rounds for it.

[Winston Blake]

I'd give them equivalents of XM307s and XM25s with HEDP rounds. Blinding lasers and radio/microwave jammers would probably be very helpful too. Mortars with futuristic SADARM-like rounds may help eliminate entire groups at a time.

[Ariphaos]

Decoys.

Lots and lots of decoys.

[Ford Prefect]

Essentially, it boils down to explosive weapons; as well as, I would expect anti-materiel rifles. Can't go wrong there.

[Starglider]

I'd give them equivalents of XM307s and XM25s with HEDP rounds.

Deployment of these down to the squad level be both very expensive (in material and training) and a logistical nightmare to emplace and supply. Almost as expensive as the robot army they're supposed to fight in fact, and without the advantage of reducing casualties.

[Setzer]

Issue high explosive grenades. They can be hand thrown or fired from an M-203 type weapon. Hell, use rifle grenades with high explosive charges. It's not like you need a huge ATGM to kill the things. They're too small to be as well armored as a tank.

[Enigma]

Bombers. Lots and lots of bombers to blast away at the robots from above.

[Feil]

Carry around radio jamming equipment, then operate like any other special forces unit, except you light up the ecm as you open fire.

Incidentally, being filthy mecha, your dogs of war will probably cost significantly more per unit than a main battle tank, which means that any attempt to use them as occupying infantry will bankrupt the power using them. All the insurgents have to do is survive until the enemy runs out of spare parts.

[Knife]

The Opfor would need to either prep the battle area or choose their battles carefully. Utilizing the terrain to make the robots work to get to the Spec Ops would be useful and provide deadzones to operate in.

So basically, rough terrain plus setting up lines of demo and/or mines. Channel the little bastards into choke points and utilize indirect fire from motars to smash the metal mother fuckers.

Wouldn't hurt to snipe the human either.

[Feil]

Why would the human be anywhere within fifty miles of the combat zone? All he needs is a radio tower and a remote control.

[Block]

Minefield.

[Knife]

Why would the human be anywhere within fifty miles of the combat zone? All he needs is a radio tower and a remote control.

Since when would such things be unfair game or 'outside the combat zone'? Let alone the radio towers and other infrastructure for the human operator to operate the robots.

[Feil]

Why would the human be anywhere within fifty miles of the combat zone? All he needs is a radio tower and a remote control.

Since when would such things be unfair game or 'outside the combat zone'? Let alone the radio towers and other infrastructure for the human operator to operate the robots.

Er... when did I say that attacking infrastructure would be not done? Of course you attack the infrastructure and operators; that's what Special Forces are for. Perhaps I missed the point of your post; I thought you were saying that you could bring a sniper to a pitched fight and expect to see the robot operator in a truck somewhere.

Minefield.

Because we all know that laying minefields is a specialty of special forces troops

[Starglider]

Minefield.

Because we all know that laying minefields is a specialty of special forces troops

They could always call in air-delivered mines - depends how good the robot sensors/AI is at detecting and avoiding non-buried mines.

[Knife]

Er... when did I say that attacking infrastructure would be not done? Of course you attack the infrastructure and operators; that's what Special Forces are for. Perhaps I missed the point of your post; I thought you were saying that you could bring a sniper to a pitched fight and expect to see the robot operator in a truck somewhere.

My original post was meant to be general. Weather or not a human operator is close by or at 'home base' taking out that operator as opposed to taking on the armored targets, is a good tactic. Soft-rear target=good.

[DrMckay]

Frak that. Just go to Condition One and launch Vipers.


Sorry.


Although, The Five-Sevens with the explosive round launchers on the bottom aaare kind of cool....

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Image ... hoenix.JPG

[Winston Blake]

Deployment of these down to the squad level be both very expensive (in material and training) and a logistical nightmare to emplace and supply. Almost as expensive as the robot army they're supposed to fight in fact, and without the advantage of reducing casualties.

Oh come on, this is 50 years in the future and we're only equipping a bunch of SF teams.

[Starglider]

Oh come on, this is 50 years in the future and we're only equipping a bunch of SF teams.

The fact that it's special forces are what makes the logistics so hard; special forces do not normally lug around heavy machine guns and autocannon because they're heavy (vehicle-mobile only), consume a lot of heavy and bulky ammo, and take a relatively long time to set up and remove again. Weaponary like that will seriously compromise mobility, assuming these 'special forces' are fighting dismounted.

[Knife]

Oh come on, this is 50 years in the future and we're only equipping a bunch of SF teams.

The fact that it's special forces are what makes the logistics so hard; special forces do not normally lug around heavy machine guns and autocannon because they're heavy (vehicle-mobile only), consume a lot of heavy and bulky ammo, and take a relatively long time to set up and remove again. Weaponary like that will seriously compromise mobility, assuming these 'special forces' are fighting dismounted.

Not a military guy are you? The M2 is man portable, go ask a weapons company in the infantry. Granted, it's not exactly comfortable to carry around but....there you go. The three man gunteam would be able to carry the bastard around and with gundrills, be able to assemble and fire the thing in under twenty seconds. (we do train in these things you know)

That said, a SF team wouldn't probably be carrying a M2 unless there was a specific need for it on that particular mission. But a 7.62, definately.

[Shroom Man 777]

M79 Bloopers. Wombat guns! CA-THUNK!

[Zixinus]

http://www.davidszondy.com/future/robot/tinsoldier.htm

http://www.davidszondy.com/future/robot/soldier.jpg

Metal detectors.

[haard]

AS50 / M82A2 Bullpup / Whatever that new .50 is called.. XW500? XM500? - or rather, the future equivalent.

Perhaps a shotgun with AP/HE slugs for close quarters?

[quote=weemandado]
Give every second man a surplus Carl Gustav. Give the other a lot of rounds for it.
[/quote]

Wouln't that be a tremendous overkill?

[the wicked prince]

EMP

[darthbob88]

EMP

Mule fritters. Anybody who can produce massive quantities of war-bots will also have enough sense to harden them against electro-magnetic pulse like that.