Israeli Army to field tiny bulldozers

No this isn’t the star of it’s own kid’s show with a cuddly little bulldozer or a cute new Transformer. This is a tiny bulldozer developed by the Israeli Army to navigate the tiny streets and alleyways of it’s friendly Arab neighbors. This diminutive dozer can navigate streets that would previously require demolition.

The little machine is designed for rumbling down narrow roads and paths in the closer quarters of Palestinian cities, where old sections are warrens of crowded alleyways between rundown concrete block buildings. In previous operations, Israeli forces have sent full-size bulldozers ahead of ground troops, causing considerable damage to buildings.

The current edition of the soldiers’ weekly Bamahaneh carries a picture of the new machine, called “Lioness.” It looks like a toy — a vehicle higher than it is wide or long, painted olive drab, with small wheels, and a black shovel attached to the front. It has room for one person behind heavily reinforced and protected windows.

The description of the innocuous-looking machine takes it far out of the toy category.

The main innovation, besides its small size, is a firing post for the driver, the article said. The driver can fire in all directions, staving off attacks and “destroying targets,” the article said. Ordinary bulldozers to not allow the driver to open fire.

The little vehicle, running in front of the troops, can clear away obstacles like piles of garbage and improvised blockades of rocks and other materials, the article said.

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The real question is can the dozer still take out annoying peace protesters who throw themselves in front of them.