Purpose:	New equipment training
Use:	Classroom
Development:	1+ years
Fielded:	N/A

The TALON robot, developed by Foster-Miller in Waltham, MA is employed by U.S. Army EOD and domestic bomb squad units as tool for the removal and disposal of improvised explosive devices (IED). The Army uses TALON to dispose IEDs by employing the Talon to place a demolition charge on the IED and detonating it. The America's Army teams are working with the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Technology Directorate at the U.S. Army Armaments Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) to develop a TALON robot trainer using the America's Army technology.

Instead of training on a keyboard and mouse, Soldiers will use a specialized version of the TALON operator control unit (OCU) that interfaces directly with the America's Army based trainer. The TALON trainer will provide EOD Soldiers with a virtual arena in which they can use the robots to dispose of IEDs before they can do harm. New versions of the TALON robot are being jointly developed by the U.S. Army and Foster-Miller. SWORDS, or Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, are the weaponized version of the robot. SWORDS is capable of holding a variety of weapons including the M16, M240, M249 semi-automatic rifle, and the 50 caliber sniper rifle.