If they get loose in the Negrohoods we could have a serious varmit problem.
Posted on 08/26/2012 3:35:17 PM PDT by managusta
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — For centuries, rats have been cursed for spreading diseases and scavenging through garbage, but the Army hopes they can become unlikely heroes by using their sensitive snouts to sniff out land mines and improvised explosive devices.
This summer, the Army awarded a Small Business Technology Transfer award of at least $519,000 to Barron Associates Inc., of Charlottesville, Va., to develop Giant African Pouched Rats — otherwise known as Gambian Pouched Rats — to find explosives.
The Rugged Automated Training System program is sponsored by scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in collaboration with engineers at the U.S. Military Academy and Fort Leonard Wood’s Counter Explosives Hazards Center.
“I think rats do a pretty good job finding mines,” said Micheline Strand, chief of the Life Sciences Division at the U.S. Army Research Office, part of U.S. Army Research Laboratory. “They’re pretty smart animals.”
These rats can go places a dog can’t and have a sense of smell believed to be better than that of a dog. They are light — about 2-3 pounds — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will trigger fewer IEDs.
“You’d rather have a rat blown up than your soldier,” Strand said.
Rats are being used to hunt for mines and explosives in Africa, but the training costs more than $10,000, which is still a fraction of the cost to train a dog, and takes two years out of the animal’s average 8-year lifespan"
If the training can be automated, it would erase the need to develop a bond between handler and animal, so the rats could become standard issue for soldiers. If costs are lowered, they could be sent downrange en mass, to fit in every backpack.
“The question is, can we automate it and make it cheap?” Strand said.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
I once knew a woman who was breeding rats to be friendly. In each generation she'd pick out the friendliest rats to produce the next generation. I asked her what she did with the rats who weren't friendly enough. She said she had a friend who raised snakes.
I am more concerned about the democRATS propersity to lie.
The rats or the democrats?
I like it,I like it.
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