From U.S. to employ snipers, robots to cut down casualties:
In the event of an assault, said Pike, U.S. forces would be likely to divide Fallujah into sectors and station two- to four-man sniper teams in each sector — positioned for a wide field of vision — as Marine patrols move through the city, checking building after building for insurgents, flushing them out into the snipers’ field of fire. A similar tactic was used with considerable success last April before the earlier assault on Fallujah was called off, Pike said.Artillery and air support would be on hand, enabling the patrols to call down 500-pound bombs on specific positions, although military analysts warn of the possibility of unintended casualties should such air support be summoned.
“One of the reasons that they are so reliant on snipers is precisely to minimize that,” said Pike.
The patrolling Marines also will have access to a Dragon Runner, a four- wheeled surveillance drone with sensors and a camera that can “see around the corner” and is sturdy enough to be dropped from a humvee traveling 25 mph or thrown through a second-story window.
“A squad leader would go out, say on a foot patrol,” said Capt. Kyle Patton, project officer for Dragon Runner at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va. “He can employ the Dragon Runner to check out danger areas, areas of interest, on reconnaissance before he sends one of his own Marines. If they do spot something, they have a good rough idea where it’s at. They can send Marines in to take out that threat or have a pretty good idea of coordinates to call in fire.”
Additional assistance comes from another robot surveillance drone called Dragon Eye, a five-pound battery-powered aircraft launched by bungee cord or by hand that can fly at 35 knots for nearly an hour on one charge and can see with low-light and infrared cameras.
“You basically point and click where you want it to go on the map display on your laptop,” said Maj. John Giscard, the device’s project leader.
There are 35 Dragon Eye systems in Iraq, each with three aircraft, Giscard said. Reaction from the Marines has been “extremely positive,” said Giscard. “They want more of them. They want them out there faster. They’re flying three or four missions a day with them.