Anot-so-simple mule has so far been one of the stars of the show at Rim of the Pacific war games.
The Legged Squad Support System, also known as the LS3 and the robotic mule, was one of 16 technologies incorporated into the just-ended Marine Corps Advanced Warfighting Experiment on Oahu and Kauai.
But the robotic beast that can carry 400 pounds of gear has been getting an extra dose of media attention — perhaps because it ambles along and catches itself remarkably like a live animal would.
It made the "Top Ten List" on the "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday. And Marines nicknamed it "Cujo," after the 1981 book by Stephen King about a rabid dog.
The war-fighting experiment, conducted July 9 through Monday, was the culmination of a decade of progressive experimentation looking at potential solutions to future challenges, according to the Marine Corps.
Among the systems also tested were a less than half-scale amphibious landing craft developed by Honolulu-based Navatek Ltd. that propels itself on big flotation pads, and a driverless vehicle known as the Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate, or "GUSS."
In a larger sense, the concept tests were about how the Marines plan to operate and fight in the future — with fewer of them in one place.
Instead of battalions of 1,000 Marines coming ashore in amphibious vehicles, helicopters and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, it may be companies of 200 to 250 dropped at separate points along the shoreline.
A new "vision" for how the Marines will operate called Expeditionary Force 21 was released in the spring.
The Marine Corps says that it is "optimized to be expeditionary — a strategically mobile force that is light enough to get to the crisis quickly, yet able to accomplish the mission or provide time and options prior to the arrival of additional forces."
Expeditionary Force 21 strives to take that agility to a new level. The plan tasks the Marines with:
» Solving problems with minimal support and broad guidance.
» Deploying and employing tailored, economical forces of almost any size and configuration.
» Deploying where there is no infrastructure and operating immediately. » Living and operating in austere conditions where large support bases are unacceptable or infeasible.
Some of the experimentation during RIMPAC was aimed at testing systems to resupply those smaller numbers of Marines and improve their ommunications.
Three Company Landing Teams of Hawaii Marines were inserted at Bellows, Kahuku Training Area and the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai by sea and air.
In the Kahukus, the Hawaii Marines operated with Indonesians, Tongans, Canadians and South Koreans, said Lt. Col. Don Gordon, the current technology officer with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab.
The Ultra Heavy-lift Amphibious Connector, or UHAC, developed by Navatek, could conceivably have three times the lift capacity of current Marine Corps hovercraft and be able to climb over a 16-foot wall.
"What we used that (the UHAC) primarily for was to demonstrate a beach landing in an austere environment — being able to cross sand dunes, get over sand dunes, areas that a (hovercraft) normally wouldn’t necessarily be able to cross," Gordon said.
The 1,200- to 1,400-pound robotic mule, which runs on a gas or diesel engine, was used for a couple of days in the Kahukus, Gordon said.
The vehicle can be programmed to "follow the leader" or find its way to a designated GPS coordinate.
"It works. I was actually surprised at how well it works, because I thought it was just going to be stumbling around and it would lose its footing," said Lance Cpl. Brandon Dieckmann, who is with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.
At the Pacific Missile Range Facility, a Company Landing Team tested communications equipment that allowed Marines to receive video feeds from a Raven unmanned aircraft and send target coordinates from the video to aircraft or artillery, Gordon said.
He stressed that the technology demonstrated was conceptual, and years away from possibly being fielded.
"This gave us a very early look at (Expeditionary Force 21) and an early look at some of the capabilities that the Marine Corps will want to look at in the future," Gordon said.
