From Middle East Newsline, Nov. 13:

The U.S. military plans to expand robot operations in Iraq.

Officials and industry sources said the military plans to use the robots for explosive ordnance disposal. They said the robots would enhance detection and disposal of improvised explosive devices in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The U.S. military has ordered 1,200 robots for ordnance proposal. The robots would be delivered to the EOD units of every service in the military.

The Waltham, Mass.-based Foster-Miller has received its largest U.S. military order to date for ground robots. Executives said the multi-year contract increased from $27.5 million for 250 robots to $124 million for up to 1,200 Talon EOD robots.

See our last posts on Iraq and the robots.