Israelis offer unmanned robo smart-missile 8-pack
Israel appears to have stolen a march on America in the matter of multipack unmanned cruise missile-in-a-box packages. An Israeli maker is exhibiting its "Jumper" robo missile pack as ready for sale, while the rival US "Netfires" system is still in development. The Jumper missile system. Credit: IAI Gunners? Mortars? Close Air …
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Why don't we do away with warfare completely
instead resolve disputes and conflicts by having a scalextric race, or even better a worldwide robot wars event.
they can put all their tech into one mofo that even Craig Charles would have to be impressed at.
Have to play it in the desert somewhere so as to avoid the nuke fallout when the hari-kiri mode on the robots is flicked.
Ouch
Imagine this, a few guys drive by and try to steal it. Then the "Army" tries to launch from it while it's in the back of the thieves truck.
Hate to be the guy riding in the bed.
Is this tech
going to save lives too?
I occasionally wonder if the difference between those who design, build and deploy weapons and those who design and build systems that are actually beneficial to humanity is genetic or nurtured. If it is nurtured then perhaps change is possible. It would be much more difficult to weed this kind of aptitude out of the gene pool
Unit Cost
Lewis
What's the unit cost please, against MLRS type munitions etc.? In short, does it make financial sense (military sense only counts for so much against HM Treasury...)
Oh, and I for one welcome our Jumping Festival Toilet robo-overlords... (Did I get that bit right?!)
Give it to Israel to produce Tools for Fags (tm)
"Scratch one tank, pickup truck, building or whatever."
"Whatever" including:
Wedding parties, UN compounds, non-US embassies, hospitals, goat herders with goats, schools, areas marked for settlement, village elder meetings and housing blocks around which a turbaned figure giving matching criterium > 0.90 was detected.
Great job.
Vulerable to man-with-crowbar attack
OK, so you parachute the box into "nowheresville" and get ready to shoot it off. Well, since there's nobody around to defend it, what prevents someone running up with a crowbar and tearing into it?
WMD
More evil with which to terrorize and massacre unarmed innocent civilians. And the people who wield these things don't get why their situation is so insecure!
I recomend www.chomsky.info
Won't work.
If everyone in the conflict were sane and rational enough to sit down and discuss the rules of robotic combat ... they wouldn't be at war in the first place.
What's with the wonky photoshopping?
Someone airbrushed out the 15 year old Palestinian kid, running up to make a few 'tweaks' before blast'off. What could possibly go wrong?
@Why don't we do away with warfare completely
robot wars? that's the plan in case you hadn't noticed - unmanned portable missile silos (what this is) under the command of unmanned aircraft no doubt using automatic targeting... the only difference is they plan to do this in the disputed country, rather than some remote area - death is more profitable or something
the civilised way to resolve disputes is in a fair and unbiased court room, in the historic "who can bribe the most judges" tradition
Long term effect
What is to stop battles of dueling Jumper-type systems? Once one side takes out the other's Jumpers it can roll out the armour.
I think we know EXACTLY
...how this is going to pan out. Palestinians are going to die in their thousands.
Cant wait until this is hacked
Tons of death in a single box. How convienient.
You'd think...
...that if it was actually ready to ship out the door they could have spared ONE unit to actually set up in the field for their promo shots instead of P-Shopping it in.
re: bootnote
smart-missile 8-pack = 8?
or: ' *It's no coincidence that both systems hold one less than a square number:'?
Never mind robot wars...
...what about risk?
I just wanted an excuse to write Kamchatka!
Paris-cos she knows all about playing games to release tension
Iron Man
Who will be guarding these missile packages then, or are they to be deployed shortly prior to use during wartime?
Who's going to guard it?
Yeh, but once dropped i from somewhere, who's going to guard the box? Or are you going to have them in the army encampments? "Don't send Jones out on patrol tonight, Searge; he uses missiles like they're going out of fashion and no one can get any sleep!"
If weapons development keeps on this way -
- war will be strictly for losers.
And the first grunt
To get drunk and point his laser range finder at the local bar or in anger at his boss........
OK I presume there will be some sort of safety check to confirm its a valid target...or will there be?
Could be millions of missiles in each one
Because it's a Tardis
@SimonC
I couldn't agree more. But, unfortunately, politicians still love to have young people kill and maim each other to further their agenda.
am I the only one who foresees problems with this?
I, for one, do NOT welcome our Skynet overlords who will co-opt our own "smart" weaponry and use it against us. Seriously, if group A deploys these or similar weapons and group B, the intended target, has access to laptops and a few truly "leet haXors" this could be problematic for group A. Or even a relatively simple JAMMING rig...
On the other hand, if group A deploys these and then has a soldier run up to it, punch in targeting coordinates, and press the big red "fire in 30 seconds" button (run away! run away!), then all's well and good.
"Platoon! Fix bayonnets and ready the charge!" Even in this age of killing-tech marvels, wars are still won with boots on the ground.
What a wonderful world
Yeah a world without war would be great, so would free beer from the tap in your house and England winning the world cup (or the All Black for that matter, I'm a kiwi).
Meanwhile in the real, I bet the US Marines are wondering if they could get something like this to the size it could be transported by an unmanned helicopter. Now that would be a battlefield revolution.
Maybe England should build factories to produce sub-standard, over priced versions for its troops just in time for the introduction of ray gun and teleportation technology.
With comments like the above I'd says you are half way there already.
Jack
RE: Mike007 Posted Thursday 3rd September 2009 20:21 GMT
the civilised way to resolve disputes is in a fair and unbiased court room, in the historic "who can bribe the most judges" tradition
I always thought he who could afford the most lawyers won in court...like most patent cases
Anyway, could you imagine the court case for WW2
The lawyers would still be arguing over it now so long as they were being paid
unlike the cases were neither plantiff or defendent has any money "ahh lets flip a coin and go back to the bar"
No more artillery or mortar platoons?
Aren't cruise missiles hideously expensive? I thought I read a while ago about $500k a pop.
This article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile
states $600k a pop. So that's a $4.8m box of tricks (excluding box costs). Not exactly going to replace many mortar or artillery boys with these are we?
I reckon with the cost of hi-tech weapons being used against low-tech opponents in the Middle East half these wars will end due to bankruptcy rather than victory.
Desktop
Hey isn't that the hill in the background that M$ used as its default windows desktop theme?
@By This 15:43
8 is one less than 9 and that is a square number...
@Simon C
I take it you've never heard the expression "sore loser" then?
You'd look a bit bloody stupid with your winning high-tech battle bot when you find out that the bloke you've just beaten has a covert nuclear weapons programme.
Sort of "heads I win, tails you're completely f***ed" really.
Let's see...
Usage - one assumes you parachute the (appropriately camoflaged) boxes at night into locations where they are not likely to be noticed fast, i.e. empty desert, cornfields, music festivals, etc...
Simple defense - build a 'lid' which hooks onto the frame, with bars to hold the missiles in. Or tip the thing over on it's side and park a car in front of it. But you have to find the box to defend against it...
Hmm.. A soldier with a gun and laser pointer for smart bombs isn't deadly enough, now they have to have cruise missles... Can't wait till they get mini-nukes in them.
Lots of icon possiblities here, but I'll go for Mr. Orwell :-(
no title....
Festivel toilet = Turdis
Like a tardis but full of poo.
And 1 less than square means
(3*3)-1 = 8
x x x
x x x
x x O
(4*4)-1 = 15
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x O
@Boris, Re:Mike007
As for the plaintiff or defendent with no money, they needn't resort to flipping coins. They could take one of a number of routes:
1 - Just bury yourself in debt or print money until it becomes worthless. The lawyer wants $1million? Sure, I'll pay him when $1million will be worth about a loaf of bread.
2 - Move to the UK and get legal aid. Why should I pay legal costs when HM government will pay for me?
3 - Hire Ambulance-Chasers-Direct, no-win-no-fee lawyers. If Hitler hired them, would the lawyers take a slab of the winnings, maybe France? Can you imagine a country essentially ruled by a money grabbing legal profession....... oh.... you mean like the USA.....
4 - Represent your own country in court. Now that would make great TV. Hitler vs. Stalin. 'Order...Order in the court!'....
Delivery system when outsourced ?
Would the owner of the crate going round carousel number 4 please pick up his luggage... its emitting smoke & making a beeping noise
Can't do everything
With the range it has, and the cost of each shot, it's not going to be any where near the enemy.
And I doubt it will replace the mortars of an infantry battalion. It's too expensive a way doing the sorts of job they do. Besides, there's some issues about artillery command and control in general. It's nice having a mortar platoon that is under your control, permanently, rather than relying on getting permission to fire shots from one of thses things.
What really gets my goat
Is the extremely poor quality Photoshopage employed in the illustration; its was so shoddy it completely obscurred the contents the article ....... someone somewhere needs to get a grip!
Rockets? What's that you say?
Is it just me?
Why am I reminded of beer when I look at the picture?
Need to nip off to the loo...
... where's the flush handle?
Seriously though, the more automated/robotic weaponry we (and in time, other countries) use, the more we distance ourselves from the human and emotional aspect of fighting... obviously, that's what the military wants - a fearless, efficient, non-emotional fighting machine...but I can't help thinking that we have already reached the stage where lives mean nothing, after all it was some robot drone plane bombing a few huts in some faraway land, who cares... 76 dead, meh, they're just numbers.
Robot be good
These things have a 50km range- they don't have to be in the enemy's backyard to be effective. They could easily be placed in secured locations such as FOBs or air dropped onto inaccessible mountain tops. And the weaponry needn't be cruise missiles, there are plenty of cheaper indirect-fire alternatives. Proper command and control policies (such as codes/authorization for a strike being provided by a higher HQ like for current artillery/air strikes) should be effective in preventing "grunts" (you might be surprised at the professionalism of these so called grunts-its no longer a conscription army you know) from abusing the firepower.
As a current serviceman I am all for these, if provided as described. The greatest problem would be convincing the old-school artillerymen that their role is now largely that of forward observers, much like the disgruntled USAF pilots jealously defending their turf against UAVs.
As for the politics of it all, professional soldiers are simply trained to fight the enemies of the state as defined by the state. Being in a democracy that state is defined by you the people. So belay the snarky comments about blowing away civilians haphazardly-for-oil crap and do something to make a difference. Besides whinging.
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