A robot dog with a flamethrower for burning trenches, which can be legally purchased in the United States (video)
The development, called Thermonator, combines a robot dog and a flamethrower, and is freely sold on the US civilian market, although it is objectively the most frightening answer to the question of how to clear enemy trenches of the enemy
Throwflame, an American private company that develops and sells flamethrowers, has opened for order a combination of a compact flamethrower and a robotic dog called the Thermonator.
The company has also released a promotional video showing a working sample that will be available in the third quarter of this year. And it should be noted right away that this is not a military weapon, because the circulation of flamethrowers is not regulated in the United States.
The robot dog itself is equipped with an ARC Flamethrower, which is quite compact and has a range of up to 10 meters, as well as marketing features such as Wi-Fi remote control.
And, objectively, this is, under any circumstances, a more than terrible development, which is one of the responses to the challenges of trench warfare. After all, it was infantry flamethrowers that were used by the Germans in the First World War in 1915 near Verdun. And the first real experience of their use led to their rapid spread and appearance in other countries.
Their immediate heyday was during World War II, but the enormous risk to the flamethrowers themselves, who carried the fire mixture on their backs, as well as to everyone else nearby, led to the emergence of flamethrower tanks. Later, during the Cold War, they were replaced, in particular in the USSR, by Shmel-type rocket-propelled infantry flamethrowers, which are actually grenade launchers with a thermobaric grenade.
But when combined with a ground-based drone that has significant autonomy and cross-country ability in difficult terrain, such a weapon really looks scary. At the same time, it was only a matter of time before such a development would appear, as many weapons developers are already combining robotic dogs with small arms.
