[BabyPeanut]

You know things are bad when they can't even keep the hubcaps from being stolen.


http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers122.html

[TrueKaiser]

heh, i wonder who they are going to use to control those. maybe the top scorers in their america's army game?

[julianj]

LOL

We need more humour: this site is getting more miserabilist by the week.

PS No Killbot is any good unless it can say "Crush Kill Destroy" in a metallic voice.

[TrueKaiser]

they would be better if they made them look like daleks, just don't have them go near stairs.

[BabyPeanut]

Unmanned vehicles: Killbots now available in two flavors
original and extra crispy
er, giant and midget
well, "Gladiator" and TALON/SWORDS

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/07/v-rambo/
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Elisra Group is currently developing other remote-controlled technologies for use in unmanned ground vehicles, which may be adopted by the US as part of its "Gladiator" programme for the US Marines. Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium recently won a $2.3m contract to develop a 7-foot "Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle", intended to act as a targeting vehicle.

The US already has a similar vehicle - Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, aka Swords or TALON - deployed in Iraq. Swords, however, is designed to seek, locate and destroy the enemy and is armed with cameras and either an M249 or M240, thereby removing altogether the need for people to get involved at the dirty end of counter-insurgency.

[Ferretlover]

Here's an intriguing idea for security:

DIY Drones August 25th, 2007:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his is a resource for all things about amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): How-to’s, links, videos, images and a discussion group.
Link to this website.
Among other things, this is where we’ll be listing all the parts, software and instructions to build each of our UAVs. Here are some starting links for the first five (and a PDF/poster that shows how the first three compare to military and commercial drones):
* GeoCrawler 1 (Based on the Picopilot off-the-shelf autopilot.)
* GeoCrawler 2 (Based on a Lego Mindstorms autopilot.)
* GeoCrawler 3 (Based on a cellphone autopilot.)
* GeoCrawler 4 (Based on a custom Basic Stamp embedded processor autopilot)
* GeoCrawler 5 (Predator airframe [shown] and PicoPilot autopilot.)
You can find a full list of UAV resources, including commerical UAVs, other amateur projects and autopilots here.

[Ferretlover]

By Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.
A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.
If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting. …
It starts as a law enforcement need...

[IslandCrow]

Bet there will be a lot of 'crime' on the beach that needs a long and careful looking at.

[Ferretlover]

I wonder if skeet shooters will take a shot at drone-dropping?

[deMolay]

Controlled by an Iphone? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/gl ... le1420925/

[Jotapay]

I'll take three please. With flame throwers.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'I')'ll take three please. With flame throwers.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')here was a massive drone attack in Pakistan today — one involving multiple unmanned aircraft and “up to 18 American missiles,” according to the Associated Press. 14 people are dead.

This second robotic strike in three days is the latest sign that the American drone war in Pakistan has reached a new peak. There have been 34 reported attacks in Pakistan in the first 19 weeks on 2010. That’s almost as many as the 36 strikes carried out in all of 2008. And these strikes are no longer against specific, named terrorists. Signs of militant activity are enough to bring in the drones.

The latest target, according to AFP: a training camp “run by militants attached to Taliban-linked Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters who attack U.S.-led forces over the border in Afghanistan.” CNN’s national security desk wonders whether the strike is in “retaliation” for the attempted Times Square bombing — which was allegedly inspired, at least in part, by the drone attacks in Pakistan.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')aisal Shahzad tried to bomb Times Square as payback for American drone attacks in Pakistan.

That’s what the New York Post is reporting, at least. The tabloid, relying on anonymous “law-enforcement sources,” says that Shahzad was an “eyewitness” to the unmanned “onslaught throughout the eight months he spent in Pakistan beginning last summer.”

In a video made prior to the attack, the Pakistani Taliban leader Qari Hussain Mehsud said “the attack is a revenge” for “the recent rain of drone attacks,” and for the slaying of extremist leaders in Iraq and Pakistan.

There have been an estimated 121 American drone strikes in Pakistan since early 2008. The death toll, by some calculations, is over 1,000 people. Counterinsurgency and counterterror experts have warned that the drone strikes risked creating more enemies than they offed.

[Carlhole]

CBS
video at the link
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he U.S. Navy has used a a laser weapon to shoot down four unmanned aerial vehicles in a test that rings up memories of Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense shield in the 1980s.

The technology, jointly developed with Raytheon, used industrial strength lasers, is more than just your run-of-the-mill PR exercise. In its write-up of the technology, Scientific American correctly notes that the shoot-down of the drones over water constitutes an advance over previous Raytheon tests which focused on static targets.

[ian807]

A great day for mirror and mylar balloon manufacturers.

[Pops]

heh heh

Sounds like another fine product in Raytheon's long line of -

Propaganda

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')rmed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.

Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.

He also called in a Predator B drone.

As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.

But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drone-arrest-20111211,0,324348.story

[Kristen]

Don't forget to bring a pair of sunglasses

[JPL]

LOL I don't know if anyone here does electric welding, but there's a condition known as 'arc-eye' which is what you get if you drop the mask when you're working. Basically you cause a focussed burn on the back of the retina, which is full of nerve endings. Hurts like hell.

It doesn't cause lasting damage but you wander around for about ten minutes in severe pain, with your hands over your eyes, and wishing you'd decided to do something else for a living. You can still see, BTW, it just hurts.

I don't know what this laser thing does but if it's anything like that, then it's going to have the opposite crowd control effects from those expected. A lot of weapons inserted into places beyond normal operational parameters, so to speak.

JP