Mosul wasn't supposed to fall again. The city in Northern Iraq saw intense fighting between American forces and Saddam Hussein's sons in 2003, and in 2008 saw major campaign by American troops against insurgent forces.
When ISIS attacked Mosul in summer 2014, two divisions of the Iraqi Security Forces were supposed to hold the city, but the 30,000 defenders crumbled and fled from the onslaught of under 2,000 enemies.
Mosul remains in ISIS' hands today, but a counter-attack is underway and there is at least a chance that Iraqi forces will retake it, again, some time this year.
The fall of Mosul to ISIS, though, is as much about the security force's choice to retreat as it is about any tactical innovation by ISIS. Perhaps that's why, as Iraq's government continues its long slow war against ISIS, that they're looking to add a robot to the army.
“Alrobot,” as it is called, was first spotted by the Baghdad Post. The story clarifies little about the machine: it's made by two brothers, it's remote-controlled, and it can fire both a machine gun and Russian-made rockets.
As Patrick Tucker at Defense One notes:
Twitter user @nomorestans, who spotted the story, says the robot made its debut at the IQDEX weapons conference in Baghdad earlier this year. Alrobot would not be the first robot to hit the sands of Baghdad, but it might become the first to actually fire a weapon. Back in 2007, the U.S. Army deployed three armed ground robots called the Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, or SWORDS, from weapons maker Foster-Miller (now owned by Qinetiq). SWORDS basically consisted of a Foster-Miller TALON robot armed with a machine gun. But the SWORDS were pulled off the battlefield before they were able to take a single shot.
The Iraqi Security Forces abandoned Mosul for many more reasons than a lack of robots. There's an extensive look at the particular division's mismanagement and failings at War on the Rocks. Yet as the Iraqi army, with support from American aircraft and special operations forces, works its way closer to Mosul, having a robot on hand might be a helpful tool. Remotely operated, the robot can go places terrifying for humans, and with weapons on board, a literal war machine could stand against ISIS' metaphorical one.
Watch a video of the Alrobot below:
