Well it had to happen!

$5000 hammers are nothing on this. Robo dog certainly marks time well, perhaps we'll see them doing close-order drill at the tatoos before long?

I wonder what the heat signature is like? Top speed of 5.6mph? Good luck dodging much.

Best for dealing with armed crazies holed up in banks etc. probably.

Then there's the whole issue of electronic jamming as drones are beginning to experience.

Drones are just beginning to fight each other in the air, how's robodog going to do against cheap little loitering suicide drones for example? Some might even be electrically powered gliders - not so easy to detect as those flying lawn mowers. (Why no one has called them "buzz-bombs" yet I do not understand - total historical ignorance I suppose.)

If one lesson is coming out of that war going on now, it's that unguided artillery is a very poor return on investment.

War is changing. We can probably expect to see aerial "front lines" in future. Miniature missile systems for miniature targets? Large winged drones functioning as semi-automated AWACS controlling a fleet of smaller "anti-drone-drones"?

Full-size SA missiles are too large and expensive to keep using on miniature targets that are too numerous for them to handle in any event. Besides, the diversion from their proper targets of full-size AC and missiles increases the risk of being locally swamped by those.

Being the target of guided munitions is like standing in field while a sniper takes pot shots at you; movement is about your only defence. Videos out now show that as soon as drones are observed overhead, weapon and even vehicle crews scatter at the run. They may survive but their equipment doesn't. IIRC being sniped effectively is pound for pound the most demoralizing experience on the battlefield; guided shells and rockets must be even more so: bullets are a lot easier to escape than blast.

Always interested to hear the opinions of those who've had the experience though! ;)

As for the super-duper auto-firing rifle, you'll need to be pretty good to get your laser designator on those "impossible" targets. :p And quite how you'd do that "around corners" isn't explained. :D The high velocity round is no doubt needed as much to get the bullet out of the barrel fast enough to beat the movement of the weapon as for "flat trajectory." Trajectory is a thing easily calculated by computers after all.

AI and robots etc. are dear to the hearts of those who don't trust their dogs to bite on command anymore though! ;) We can expect lots more lolly to be spent there.