Drone Update: Army Tests Flying Robo-Sniper

[Peter Presland]

Courtesy of Popular Mechanics - That ever-willing promoter of and apologist for 'The official narrative'

In modern warfare, the advantage often goes to guerrillas who can attack, then quickly hide among the population or disappear into the hills. To counter those tactics, the Pentagon since 2001 has been arming unmanned aerial vehicles to identify and destroy targets with missiles. The Defense Department is seeking weapons for UAVs that can strike enemies but limit collateral damage, especially in cities.

The Army’s solution is the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS), a small, unmanned helicopter equipped with a powerful .338-caliber rifle. An autopilot system handles the tricky business of flying while the operator lines up the kill shot on a remote monitor.

The Army ground-tested the rifle’s turret on a Vigilante unmanned helicopter to evaluate its accuracy. The turret-control hardware and flight-control algorithms will be refined to make shots more accurate before airborne testing begins in July. The program’s heads say the airborne robo-sniper idea was put forward five years ago, but only became practical when Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory designed a lightweight, stabilized turret. Users control it with an adapted Xbox 360 controller. The same turret could be used on unmanned fixed-wing aircraft such as the Predator or Reaper and could also allow ground robots to fire on the move.

Vigilante 502 Unmanned Helicopter
+ Max Weight: 1100 pounds + Length: 26 feet + Rotor Diameter: 23 feet + Top Speed: 117 mph + Payload: 150 pounds + Fuel Capacity: 36 gallons + Flight Time: 6-plus hours
RND Manufacturing Edge 2000 Rifle
+ Cartridge: Lapua Magnum .338 + Weight: 14 pounds + Action: Gas-operated semiautomatic + Muzzle Velocity: 3000 feet per second with 250-grain bullet + Rate of Fire: Up to 10 carefully aimed shots per minute + Ammunition Cost: $4 per round

Other Possible Weapons for the ARSS
+ M249 5.56-mm squad automatic weapon, a small-caliber machine gun
+ M240 7.62-mm machine gun, a weapon used by the U.S. and NATO
+ AA-12 12-gauge, a full-auto shotgun
+ Peak Beam Immobilizer, a xenon strobe light that stuns targets with “psycho-physical” effects like disorientation and nausea

Note the "Adapted Xbox 360 Game Console" controller and there's a picture on the PM site.

Also note they want to "Limit collateral damage" (natch) - that ever-useful euphemism for those 'pain-in-the-arse innocent bystanders' (to use a favourite of mine from 'The Godfather') that they keep blowing to bits at a ratio in excess of 20:1 goodies:baddies or more.

Surreal isn't it?

[Peter Lemkin]

And an un-armed one now is on patrol in the US http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/st...VxFOg.cspx

[David Guyatt]

This is what you're looking for Pete:



Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines.

[Peter Lemkin]

This is what you're looking for Pete:



Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines.

I make the sad prognostication it will NOT be long before we hear of an armed one firing on someone - some house or car in the USA not too far into the future.....they keep rachetting it up in one direction and the sheeple accept all the past horrors and only are agape at the last one...to accept it when supassed by new horrors.....just like in Germany in the later 30's...

[Mark Stapleton]

Here's my favorite drone story, although there's plenty of them around these days.

Tuesday June 23, 2009. South Waziristan region of Pakistan:

A drone attack targeting a couple of Taliban leaders in the morning kills around 8 people. It appears the targets got away but it's hard to get a proper reading of the situation because journalists and other media types are barred from the conflict zones. In the afternoon a funeral gathering for those killed earlier is again attacked by drones, killing many more civilians. Numbers vary but the Tehran Times claims it is up to 80.


http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=197680


So who are the terrorists? If the definition of terrorism is indiscriminate murder of innocents, then America's terrorism is one level beneath suicide bombers on the scale of morality because a suicide bomber sacrifices his/her life, whereas the drone terrorists sit in front of a computer screen a thousand miles away.