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Emerging from United States Air Force planes, four-legged robot dogs scampered onto an airfield in the Mojave Desert, offering a possible preview into the future of warfare.

“The dogs give us visuals of the area, all while keeping our defenders closer to the aircraft,” said Master Sgt.

The dogs are called Vision 60 UGVs, or “autonomous unmanned ground vehicles” by their manufacturer, Ghost Robotics of Philadelphia.

It touts their ability to operate in any terrain or environment while being adaptable to carrying an array of sensors and radios on, for a dog robot, a fairly simple platform.

“A core design principle for our legged robots is reduced mechanical complexity when compared to any other legged robots, and even traditional wheeled-tracked UGVs,” the company’s website says.

Flying into a possibly hostile airstrip aboard an Air Force C-130, the robot dogs were sent outside the aircraft to scout for threats before the humans inside would be exposed to them, according to an Air Force news release.

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