Air Force's Flying Assassin Robot Enters Final Development Stage

send a couple of dozen of these to Iran as a present for their president and a few dozen more for N. Korea

If there is no line of sight, what is its targeting mechanism? If it is in fact intended to target specific hostiles, how does it distinguish? It can't be by heat sensors.

this is a great idea and I'm amazed it took this long to come about really. who would love a mini smart bomb that's cheep to boot.

@troybny

the UAV has a camera on it so once the user got the intell he/she needed they would send the drone in to kill the target by hand or throught some form of image maping I would say..

Troybny, I think "non-line-of-sight" means that there isn't a straight line from the shooter to the target, unlike what you would have if you were eyeballing a target directly. Using an on-board camera with a link to a monitor does the same thing remotely, as is the case with all remotely-piloted drones. So you would still "see" the target and have a human decide whether to continue with the kill or not.

lol KH, I registered just to laugh at that. XD

I seem to recall they were developing a drone copter with a sniper rifle attached.It was aimed by a remote operator and was said to be a perfect shot (due to gyro-stabilization of the gun).That is my idea of low collateral damage..

I vote for an automatic rifle as the weapon mounted on this bad boy. Light, inexpensive and can carry lots of rounds so it doesn't have to land and reload with a missle or two.

No brainer.

As far as no line of sight .. that only refers to direct line of sight.. the camera on the drone doesn't count. Also a no-brainer.

All robot wars, once fiction, soon to be reality.

I have said over and over again that I don't find anything great about hunting. You wake up early, you sit still in the cold for hours, you kill bambi which you then have to carry back with you. But this... this changes everything. I would enjoy hunting deer with this thing.

Also, I seem to recall that remote control airplane enthusiasts have "dogfights". If I could get one of these before anyone else... between this and hunting I might not have time for an xbox anymore.

Geez, this reminds me of that old movie "Runaway" that starred Tom Selleck, Kirstie Alley and Gene Simmons. Simmons played this eccentric (or should it be "mad") genius who invented this small rocket (the size of a white-board marker) that can be fired from a specialized gun. Once launched, the rocket would follow it's target wherever he/she goes because it tracks the target through the target's DNA code that has been previously uploaded to the rocket's microchip. Line-of-sight is not necessary here too. I remember a character in that movie saying "wow, talk about a bullet with your name on it!"

The DNA thing here maybe a bit too advanced but that "no line-of-sight" factor can be addressed with present technology like homing beacons which the "assassin robot" would follow.

I think some people misunderstand the weapon system. The drone it self is the weapon. Once employed you no longer have a drone. And second as far as non-line of sight, take a look behind the controller in the photo. See that tall antenna? That will never go away and with two-way transmission of data it will require a lot of power and limited range due to the high Freq band. Good idea for base defense or possible spooks set up for the long wait.

Somebody over the horizon may receive a signal that a known person is on the road. Even a rocket that hits a car directly could still injure a passer-by. So the picture shows something like bullets entering a windshield.

So what does it have? Perhaps a rocket that fires a wide shotgun as it nears a target?

If the point of origin is too far a way, and it takes an hour to travel to the target, it may not be practical. If they brought some with them, and set up within a couple of miles of the battleground, it may be able to arrive right on spot.

It's also possible that people on the ground can illuminate the target with an invisible laser, which would serve as the target for the drone.

Vocal radio contact could also tell the operator that the vehicle is escaping in a particular direction, and is a particular model and color. If the spotter can see the drone, he can also advise that the drone is in the right place.

A rifle would have a recoil. A recoilless rifle would fire a round with exhaust going through the back. The missle could then fire a shot once nearing the target.

If there is no line of sight, what is its targeting mechanism? If it is in fact intended to target specific hostiles, how does it distinguish? It can't be by heat sensors.
http://www.rpgshow.com/

Why did people think this is not an good development. We should feel proud for all this initative for the hard work done by those creators of this technology. Great work by air force authority.

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Some may argue that the world is not safe anymore but I believe that this kind of weaponry is needed and overdue to fight the good fight. So it's good to hear that the "Anubis" drone is in the final development phase for the Air Force.

Perhaps soon it can be trialed in combat. A good place for that would be against the pirates around La Digue Seychelles waters. It's been too easy for those brigands for too long. Time to really hurt them. And this sounds like a precision weapon that can strike at just the right time and place, so just right against those pirates . Let's get it done, and the world will applaud.

I actually watched a whole video presentation on these new battle-ready assasin 'bots over on a video blog http://prohometheatersystems.com/video/ and found the whole thing both facinating and very scary.

I read a lot of literature on this topic because this is really interesting question. For istance I found much information by http://www.pdfok.com where new 'Anubis' project is examined in detail.I consider this development is awesome and extremly hard.This project makes sense to be.I hope that our people will be proud for our country and this almost insuperable work of air force authority.

If there is no line of sight, what is its targeting mechanism? If it is in fact intended to target specific hostiles, how does it distinguish? It can't be by heat sensors.

Kettering
http://burnwiigames.org/

Cool! Whenever I read such news I see that human intellect has no boundaries. Do you remember the song by Adam Lambert. I've heard it recently at music SE http://www.mp3hounddog.com . But on the other hand I'm scared to imagine what wars will be like in future if to use all posible devices that exhist. I guess, if earlier people were stopped by the lack of weapons, money, now wars will be restricted by will.

I think that war never ends for humanity,we must digest this idea.From technological aspect i think is great but how we can feel happy when we speak for weapons?
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I think some people misunderstand the weapon system. The drone it self is the weapon. Once employed you no longer have a drone. And second as far as non-line of sight, take a look behind the controller in the photo. See that tall antenna? That will never go away and with two-way transmission of data it will require a lot of power and limited range due to the high Freq band. Good idea for base defense or possible spooks set up for the long wait.
www.tran33m.com/vb/