'Dragon's Egg' hurlable weeble-cams for US digi-troopers US forces have become the latest to adopt a throwable camera system, intended to let combat troops see inside rooms, around corners and so on without exposing themselves to danger. Israeli forces have also used such equipment: the UK's MoD, by contrast, has chosen to fund British firms to develop a homegrown alternative. The …
"It's also hoped that they could reduce accidental killing of civilians. Israeli forces have already deployed a similar gadget during last year's heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip"
Going by the testimonials of both soldiers and civillians and reports from the likes of Human Rights Watch , it's hardly an endorsment.
Then again, they did say accidental killings.
Don't get it. Surely if they want to make substantial savings then it would be just worthwhile not incurring the costs for research, development and testing which would overrun the project in cost and time.
If they ordered the existing, already development system they could get it out to the existing troops that are on the ground now who could use such systems now...
just to point out that the soldiers who used these in tests hated them, the majority of tests ended quickly when the 'egg' was thrown into a room either via door or window only to come to rest under furniture (sofas, wardrobes, etc) making them not only useless but dangerous, as any element of surprise had then been lost.
guess ill just have to go wait for the black helicopters now... wont be long before 'they' come to get me for revealing an embarrasing military 'secret'.
Everything in that thing could be made with cheap off the shelf components, and much smaller than a cricket ball. Use 4 phone cameras ($8 each), a couple of cheap encoder chips and a Wifi chip, battery, total cost, < $100. And that would be HD.
Or in military terms, $4000 each, plus support.
Which is more important, buying an existing version cheap and saving the lives of the troops, or handing more money out to chums in the defence industries?
Alternatively of course they might have thought about the chances of getting Brits to accurately throw something "about the size of a cricket ball".
Judging by the pics the buildings in Afghanstan where problems lurk are a bit short of windows. Furthermore, unlike some other armies, Brit tactics tend to prefer speed and surprise with good training. Tossing balls all over the place too see what's there is a slow and methodical approach and is not guaranteed to get better results or lower casualties. A few years ago a Brit platoon fresh back from Iraq did a house clearing demo for the German Army officers' school, fast and hard, the Germans were amazed because they do slow and methodical.
On digital soldiers, UK has run several trials but hasn't yet found the combination of gear that might do to get the show on the road. Recently quoted interviews with US, German & UK officers concluded that US and German soldiers would take anything they were ordered to use not matter, Brit soldiers want to be able to individualise everything and would not use stuff that didn't work well and wasn't convenient to use or wear and useful to them.
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