Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 The Pentagon's place for new drone ideas. Courtesy Treyarch

Art imitates life they say, and every now and then life imitates art. Which is only slightly terrifying when the art being imitated is a Call of Duty title and the real-world entity doing the imitating is the Pentagon. A fictional drone from a video game that hasn’t even been released yet has inspired a DoD office to consider pursuing the same drone in real life, Brookings Institute 21st Century Defense Initiative director and all-around drones guru Peter Singer tells Innovation News Daily.

The video in question came out on April 23, released by Treyarch (the maker of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2) to drum up viral buzz about its upcoming game title. In it, a gentleman in a heavy Russian accent shows off a tablet-controlled, machine-gun-packing quadrotor drone--a drone that, by the way, does not exist outside of the pixelated landscape of the video game, set in 2025.

But it could exist, and if its going to exist the Pentagon can’t let the Russians get there first (see: nuclear weapons, the moon, the Miracle on Ice). Which is interesting--ironic even--considering Black Ops 2 (out in November) seems to be nothing if not a violent warning against automating the means of warfare (see trailer below). If this is where the Pentagon is mining ideas, then it’s certainly going to get some cool machines--but here’s hoping it is keeping its network security up to date.

[Innovation News Daily]

8 Comments

I want one!

"Fear, is but your mind holding you back"

It's only a matter of time before ships like those in Avatar are a reality--with bigger props for sure but still huge air ships are possible with propeller driven rigs like those--especially if electrically driven when batteries are 30 fold more dense electron-wise. Which is coming soon.

and to think people don't think HK's are the future, if you can't beat them, join them...it may be our only chance, cheers

The atmosphere on Pandora (the fictional! planet in Avatar) is much denser than Earth's, and the gravity is much less. IOW, it's more like the conditions on Venus -- minus the heat and toxic gases. Those conditions would make flight a lot easier than it is here. That said, better batteries will indeed make all sorts of things possible. _

Actually its more like art imitating life, imitating art. The quadcopters have been around for a while a few years they have been in development. Anyone who couldn’t see a military / police application from the onset is just a sheep. The maker of COD saw this and extrapolated. So the author is wrong.

Also video games like COD in general are endorsed by the military because it desensitizes us to the effects of war. If you kill 1000 people through a sniper rifle, your subconscious doesn’t make the distinction between real and make believe, you are much better prepared when you turn 18 to go kill helpless women and children which is what the U.S.A (and Canada, and U.K) military is know for.

you have got to be f'in kidding me, only mentally disturbed people don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, go crawl back under your rock, negative cheers

I wouldn't say there's nothing to be gained from the design; far from it. So then, who is making the best fans? Endurance under load. Then, try to make em semi-robust in their survivability because they just ain't gonna be all that fast if they have real payload.

FYI: The Guy in the video is a very popular Youtuber. His username is FPSrussia and he is an American Citizen



July 2013: The Future Of Flight

The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.


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