U.S. Army tests autonomous mass mine-laying

When mounted to a vehicle, the U.S. Army’s Volcano mine dispenser can blanket roughly 32 acres with up to 960 mines. Now, the service is testing a system that can do the same thing without a driver behind the wheel.

During May demonstrations at Camp Grayling, Michigan soldiers remotely fired the Autonomous Volcano for the first time before later having it lay two separate minefields without human assistance, Picatinny Arsenal announced Tuesday.

The test represents the Army’s latest move to modernize legacy equipment, systems tactics and munitions with emerging technology. In the combat engineering world, the service is experimenting with using unmanned aerial systems to drop grappling hooks, and it is trying to send drones — instead of humans — into the breach.

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