A NEW breed of robots will help RN disposal teams deal with bombs in the future.

Whitehall has ordered 80 ‘Cutlass’ hi-tech robots which can be ‘driven’ by operators using a joystick from a safe position.

The RN’s three bomb disposal units – Southern Diving Units 1 and 2 and Northern Diving Group – already use robots to help them deal with IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) as home-made bombs are dubbed by the military.

The iconic ‘wheelbarrows’ have been around since the 1970s (they were first used to cope with the menace of bombs in Northern Ireland).

Three decades later, Cutlass is faster, more agile and above all can cope with far more types of explosive devices and difficult situations than its predecessor.

Particularly impressive is the robot’s ‘manipulator arm’ which operators can use to make bombs safe in a wide range of situations by day or night.