Story by Melissa Buckley
GUIDON staff
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Fort Leonard Wood’s engineers are training with a new layer of protection — the Experimental Model 7 Spider System.

“It’s XM right now, because it still hasn’t reached full rate production,” said Staff Sgt. Andrew Hoover, Spider training developer.

“Once it goes to full rate production it will just be the M7 Spider.”

The XM7 Spider gets its name from the way it looks when fully deployed: the main body in the center with six munitions ports spread around it.

The Spider was designed primarily to replace landmines.

“It is used in the same way, but it is not a victim-operated system,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Andrews, Spider training developer.” The main use for it is defense. You can put it in a field, in layered effects, right outside your forward operating base. It protects you from being overrun. The other use for it would be if you are constantly getting mortared from a specific area, you can deny the enemy that position by putting the Spider there to protect that area. The Spider doesn’t sleep. It will provide continuous denial of that terrain to enemy forces.”

The battery powered Spider Munition Control Unit is superior to landmines for many reasons, most importantly because it is remote controlled.

 “We use man-in-the-loop to get positive identification and make sure it is an enemy combatant and not a child or animal,” Hoover said.

“With certain antennas that we use, we can be as many as 8-kilometers away.

Andrews agreed.

“There is observation in the line of sight of the Spider field so they can call for fire, and you don’t have to wait for the enemy to actually hit it,” Andrews said.

Another reason the Spider is considered better than landmines is the Spider provides a defensive anti-personnel field with 100 percent recoverability.

“We couldn’t always pick-up all of the landmines. But, you can put a Spider on the ground, it serves it’s purpose and when you leave you take all of it with you,” Andrews said. “You can also self-destruct the system. It will blow off all the munitions attached to it and it becomes a giant paperweight. It makes the software and hardware unusable by other forces.”

One Spider operator can control up to 64 MCUs simultaneously, with multiple configurations.

“You can put in 40-millimeter airburst grenades. It’s designed to burst at the eye level of an average male. It has a 10-meter diameter, 20-meter radius kill-zone,” said Andrews. “We do have non-lethal versions like flash bangs and sting balls, which are still in development. They are crowd control devices.”

In addition, Andrews said a Munition Adapter Module can be attached to the Spider, allowing M18 Claymore mines or other explosive devices to be controlled by the Spider operator.

The 10th Mountain Division is already using the Spider MCU in Afghanistan.

“A teenager walked into the field, picked up a Spider and walked home. If that had been a mine, he would have been dead, but because of the operator’s ability to choose who is a combatant and who is not that teenager is alive today,” Andrews said. “The Spider sterilized (became inert) as soon as it was picked up, and Soldiers went to his house and got it back.”

As a Soldier using the XM7 Spider daily, Andrews said he is proud to be training Soldiers on something that has a more positive reputation.

“As engineers, we remember landmines. They served a purpose. Now the Spider system can fill that capabilities gap while removing the negative legacy of land mines,” Andrews said. “Also, the civilian population isn’t angry at us anymore because their livestock wondered into the field. I like having the ability to distinguish between enemy and friendly.”