SOFREP Pic of the Day: Robo Military Working Dogs Save Lives

Of all of the amazing high-tech secret squirrel type stuff I saw at SOF Week this year, one of the most impressive things was a robotic dog. How do they save lives? Well, our medical personnel can practice on these extremely realistic animatronic canines and learn the best way to care for them in an emergency.

To learn more about how that works, read an article I wrote about training medics in canine care, here. You might be surprised to find out that if a dog is hurt in the field, chances are high that it will be cared for by the same doctors, nurses, and combat medics who take care of human warfighters. There just are not enough veterinarians in the service to go around.

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In our SOFREP Pic of the Day, we see US Army Sgt 1st Class Dewey Ross carrying a presumably wounded robotic military working dog (MWD) to medical care during the Best Medic competition on November 30th, 2022, in Baumholder, Germany. The US Army photo was snapped by Ruediger Hess.

Meet Diesel

Diesel is a highly sophisticated training aid made by our good friends at TacMed Solutions. He is named after a hero working dog.

Robo dog — That fleshy blob you see there is a spare palate, tongue, and teeth, with blast damage. It’s completely interchangeable with the normal anatomy. Photo by the author.

How do you control Diesel? Glad you asked. He comes with a fully functional remote control. You can make him bleed (which very much looks like real blood) and even control the rate and location of that bleeding. I think if you press one of those buttons on the control, it will spurt out. He barks, squeals, growls…I think he even pees. He should for over $50,000. Yep, it costs every penny of that, plus tax.

You can see some of Diesel’s spare parts in the background of the photo. If you noticed in the pic above, he is missing most of his left lower extremity. Not to worry though, he has a spare that snaps right into place.