um… cool

More excellent news from the Pentagon: their new robot helicopter sniper is working and almost ready for field deployment!

ARSS is literally point-and-shoot for the operator on the ground, using a videogame-type controller. The software makes all the necessary corrections, and the system should ensure first-round kills at several hundred yards. The secret is in the control system and stabilized turret (on the right in the picture above), which is currently fitted with a powerful RND Manufacturing Edge 2000 rifle specifically designed for sniping work, using the heavyweight .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge.

I find it indescribably awesome that our government is building and deploying robot snipers so that teenagers playing video games can kill poor people in cities anywhere in the world!

HOORAY AMERICA!!!!

Seldom is the illustration of Orwell’s words so vivid. Above, a screen shot from the New York Times’s front page today. Notice that the 50 Americans who died were “musicians and law students, parents and pilots,” whose “varied lives ended on a cold, foggy night,” and that five of them are illustrated with flattering photographs; whereas the report from Pakistan tells us that “Missiles from pilotless drones killed up to 32 people, including Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.” Were their lives “varied?” Were “musicians, law students, parents, and pilots” among those killed? Was it cold and foggy in the mountains of South Waziristan?

From an actual email and posting on a Christian website:

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, PLEASE PRAY TODAY AND CONTINUALLY THAT ALL SUCH CURSES BE BROKEN AND SATAN’S PLAN FOR AMERICA BE DEFEATED, IN JESUS’ NAME. PRAY AND COVER MCCAIN AND PALIN WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, IT IS TIME YOU LEARN!!!

h/t: Andrew Sullivan

From the always-inspiring publication Defense Systems:

Homeland Security Strategies, of New Rochelle, N.Y., will offer facial-recognition technology for its Icarus Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platform. Originally designed to detect roadside bombs and landmines, Icarus can now perform tasks such as aerial observation and countermeasures against improvised explosive devices, buried-object detection, facial recognition, and laser targeting of hostile personnel.

Totally awesome! And definitely a great marketing strategy to name your flying machine after the mythical figure whose hubris led him to flaunt his limits and self-destruct! Genius!!

More detail, from the manufacturer’s sales page:

The Icarus Microdrone is able to hover over an area under surveillance with near silent lift propulsion. This enables the remotely operated aerial vehicle to function in urban environments without alerting those under surveillance to its presence.

Keep an eye on the sky!

Great news!  Now the Air Force can successfully drop 500-pound bombs from unmanned aerial vehicles!

An MQ-9 Reaper successfully dropped its first GPS-guided GBU-49 missile during a live-fire test May 13 at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, at China Lake, Calif.

Manned U.S. aircraft have frequently dropped the 500-pound bomb loaded with a GPS kit in Iraq and Afghanistan because of its accuracy and ability to reduce collateral damage.

Pilots and sensor operators with the 658th Aeronautical Systems Squadron flew three Reaper sorties and dropped six GBU-49s on target, according to an Air Force Material Command news release.

Check our Dr. Dave’s excellent collection of slo-mo video clips. I love the popping water ballons but be sure to check out the “Electric Knife Cutting Through Jello”.

You can download low res files for free, or purchase a DVD of high res clips here.

ALSO, ANOTHER VERY COOL WATER BALLOON POPPING IN SLO-MO.