US Military Using $600K 'Drone Buggies' To Patrol Camps In Africa (cnbc.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: The U.S. military is using an unmanned robotic vehicle to patrol around its camps in the Horn of Africa. The remote controlled vehicle is the result of a 30-year plan after military chiefs approved the concept of a robotic security system in 1985. Now the Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System, known as MDARS, are carrying out patrols in the east African country of Djibouti, under the control of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. The area is known as home to a number of hostile militant groups including the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab. An operator sits in a remote location away from the vehicle watching the terrain via a camera link which is fixed to the chassis. U.S. military software engineer Joshua Kordanai said in a video presentation that the vehicle drives itself, freeing the remote operator to monitor video. "The vehicle has an intruder detection payload, consisting of radar, a night vision camera, a PTZ [pan-tilt-zoom] camera and two-way audio, so the system will be able to detect motion," he added. One report prices the cost of an earlier version of the military 'drone buggy' at $600,000 each.
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Policing the world so he can prove how much of a big shot he is. Expect more of the same when he gets elected. Nothing but a third world dictator bully.
For all I care he's free to take out my current rulers & government at any time he want.
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good thing it has two-way communications, so they can voice-threaten the terrorists.
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"Surely we wouldn't be stupid enough to develop Skynet!" .. except in the west the definition of a terrorist is the person who act without authority of the group who think they should be in power and be the only ones able to use force of violence.
So.. here we have the drones who will act against humans and try to stop any human using violence .. Now, what if the humans started to attack the machines?
Pants on fire (Score:3, Insightful)
Policing the world so he can prove how much of a big shot he is. Expect more of the same when he gets elected. Nothing but a third world dictator bully.
You do realize that's the opposite of what he wants to do, right?
He wants the US to spend less time, effort, and money patrolling the world, and wants other countries to take up the slack.
But go ahead and throw insults. It is, after all, the only thing Democrats do.
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Forcing countries like Japan and South Korea to build nuclear weapons because his resolve to continue US's longstanding defense of its allies is not going to make a better world. The last time the United States retreated behind its borders and let its Allies fend for themselves, we ended up with the most destructive conflict in history, and the costs dwarfed what it would have cost to keep a proper military presence in potential trouble spots.
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Can you define "noble". The proxy wars fought during the Cold War had been one reason; containment of the USSR (and to a lesser extent China).
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No real arguments (Score:2, Insightful)
Forcing countries like Japan and South Korea to build nuclear weapons because his resolve to continue US's longstanding defense of its allies is not going to make a better world.
Then say that.
Printing lies and insults doesn't make your case, but it to be the only thing the Democrats can do.
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"Then say that."
He did
"Printing lies and insults doesn't make your case"
What is wrong with his case
"it to be the only thing the Democrats can do"
And where is your case
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Re:Pants on fire (Score:4, Insightful)
He wants the US to spend less time, effort, and money patrolling the world, and wants other countries to take up the slack.
That's what he says. But the rest of the world isn't going to pick up the tab for Pax Americana. Trump haven't explained how he would downsize the military by laying off troops, mothballing weapon systems and closing bases. Actions that won't be popular with politicians and voters as many government-funded jobs will go away and unemployment increase.
But go ahead and throw insults. It is, after all, the only thing Democrats do.
As a moderate conservative, I can say that Trump is an idiot.
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oh how about this fold the department of education into the department of defense (after all the education of our children is of Strategic Importance) and then have the various "black" orgs focus on getting our children taken care of properly (fed clothed ect).
BTW a couple things
1 if you want to be technical Decimate means kill/remove 1 in 10 i think you were reaching for devastating
2 the US Budget actually has a surprisingly small percent spent on the DOD (last year about 15%)
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oh really? this came about under Obama administration
maybe you have a problem
Man, I thought Warbots would be cool. (Score:2, Funny)
Instead of lame camera-toting trucks, I thought we'd get cool laser-armed chrome titans striding across the battlefield.
I'm beginning to think I won't get a flying car either.
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Well, I for one welcome our tiny Par 72 Golf Overlords!
30 Years?! (Score:3)
It took 30 years to come up with a Roomba with night vision?
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No wonder their coffee tasted so bad!
Cheap (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering the cost of useless toys like the F-35, this is a steal in both utility and price.
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But can it fly?
Apropos of nothing... (Score:3, Insightful)
Apropos of nothing...
Just how hard is it to disable one of these $600,000 mobile golf carts?
For example, can a high powered rifle pierce any of the antennas, control electronics, or motive hardware? Would an IED be sufficient?
And having done so, what dangers might the recovery team face?
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are you serious ?
its a golf cart. literally. it has no armor. you can kick it over with your foot.
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Apropos of nothing... Just how hard is it to disable one of these $600,000 mobile golf carts? For example, can a high powered rifle pierce any of the antennas, control electronics, or motive hardware? Would an IED be sufficient? And having done so, what dangers might the recovery team face?
The US got massively superior firepower if they can just locate the enemy. And they won't be medics in a hurry because he's bleeding out. Taking out one of these would be announcing to the world here I am, come kill me. And you got them to reveal themselves without putting any soldiers at risk. And if they're plagued with hit and run attacks they can set an ambush of their own like a hidden sniper covering the patrol area or a squad that'll cut them off from behind. And you could probably make dumb decoys f
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Just how hard is it to disable one of these $600,000 mobile golf carts?
The best way to disable a military vehicle is to shoot the driver. Since this vehicle doesn't have a driver, it will be less vulnerable.
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They're not $600k, that is obvious just from the idiotic summary. An "earlier version" (prototype) cost $600k, the production version is likely much cheaper. The actual cost is negative, because manned security uses the same sensors and simply costs more because of the desire to protect humans.
Seems appropriate... (Score:3)
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What could be more suitable to guard your drone aircraft's landing field and associated infrastructure than drone vehicles?
Sounds good; but, it might be funny to suggest American Bees as a defense measure.
For years, I have been told the USA is being invaded by African Bees; I think maybe American Bees might want some payback.
Tim S.
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After that comes a well funded intelligence sniffer to find out how much is an internal dumb database of possible maps or daily changes by human control and a burst of real time commands.
Any US command and control communications will undergo a full reverse engineering. The main question will be how much hardware crypto
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After that comes a well funded intelligence sniffer...
LOL you watch too many movies, and they weren't even set in Africa! You took a double-dose of derp and even managed to get confused by Vietnam. Kinda strange.
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A totally secure command and control link?
So advanced that no other nation will be able to consider any counter measures?
What the hell? $600K? (Score:2)
$600,000 for one of these?
Hell, I could build a functionally similar unit for less than $100K, and it would be better than this glorified golf-cart.
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Well, get going and do it already. If it can perform the same functions and reliably survive under battlefield conditions, you can probably mark it up by $400K and make a bundle on every unit you sell.
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Your profits will be eaten up by bribing politicians to buy your drone and dump the primary contractor (who has already bribed the politicians).
The military-industrial-political complex is very tightly knit. It's hard to break into and requires years of "groundwork". But once you have all the politicians in place, it's gravy.
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Well, get going and do it already. If it can perform the same functions and reliably survive under battlefield conditions, you can probably mark it up by $400K and make a bundle on every unit you sell.
Making a sale to the DOD from an outsider like me is next to impossible. If you're not part of the established military contractor network then you don't stand a chance. I could build a better, stronger, more capable replacement for less and they'd just sneer at me.
Look at it- is there anything on that jumped-up golf cart that couldn't be replicated at 1/3rd the cost? Nope, I could build 90% of it from COTS gear and get the rest from specialty suppliers. This thing uses no high-tech cutting-edge technology,
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If it can perform the same functions and reliably survive under battlefield conditions, you can probably mark it up by $400K and make a bundle on every unit you sell.
Until he finds out what the article actually said... $600k was reported for an early prototype. It is a bit late to hit that price point; he'd have to compete at production prices, and eat the cost of his own prototypes.
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Just the accounting you'd need to sell the thing to the government would cost you $100K. Oh, and you'd have to pay yourself or someone else to take part in the bidding process or apply for the granted, and that has to be recouped as part of the sale cost. Er... you were planning on paying yourself for your time, weren't you?
Also, there's a big difference between building a prototype from junk you scrounged and building a reproducible product. When you build a product the second copy should be exactly the
The strenghts and weaknesses of human and machine (Score:3)
This sentry combines the grace and agility of a robot with the reflexes and continuous attention of a human! Something like this could never be tricked into carrying a bomb back to base.