Posted on 03/18/2006 11:00:28 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Israel has developed a slew of cool sensors for keeping tabs on terrorists -- grenades stuffed with cameras, softball-shaped sensors, mini-drones flown by a Dick Tracey-esque controller.
Defense Update spots an Israeli surveillance tool that I hadn't heard of before: a rifle-mounted, sensor-filled projectile called "Smart Arrow." Shoot it into a wall, and a "video camera is activated, sending live images from the target for up to seven hours."
The Smart Arrow comes with "an option for small explosive heads to assist the projectile embedding in the hardest surfaces," Defense Daily notes. "Once the tip of the Arrow is embedded, the body -- containing a small video camera -- pivots from a ball joint and hangs below the head. Then it begins to transmit live images from the surrounding area to a remote display and control unit."
This... allows the operator to view an "out of sight" area, such as an alley, before friendly ground troops overtake the position--a process that could be dangerous and time consuming, Kattan said.
"It can also be shot into the wall above a window then...[swivel down and] transmit what's going on inside," Gal said.
The display and control unit is small and highly portable and allows the operator to rotate the camera on the Smart Arrow while video is transmitted continuously. The LCD display screen is about six and a half inches in size and the unit can operate for about three hours continuously on a single charge.
The video transmission range is about 300 meters outdoors, and several hundred feet if, for example, the system was shot through a window and embedded in an interior wall or ceiling...
The Arrow can transmit the image to several receivers [and] has a 60-degree field of view with a frame rate of 25 per second and a resolution of 420 TV lines (tvl) in black and white and 320 tvl in color.
A Smart Arrow system includes two projectiles, one control unit and a charger in a rugged transport case.
How cool!
Necessity is the mother of invention. I have to assume/hope the US forces in the ME will have these right quick.
That's badass
Lots of these tools could be used on the border to help control the Mexican invasion.
Definitely cool. I am amazed at how they can develop electronics which are robust enough to survive such shocks and still function.
Good stuff for sure.
They've been doing that a long time. The proximity fuzes developed in WWII underwent a tremendous number of Gs during firing, as noted on an article linked from FR(?) relatively recently.
Israel's big moneymaker industries are medical, high-tech and military. Often connected and overlapping, lol.
They've been forced to specialize, since natural resources are low, there. And hostile nations abound.
Thanks for the ping.
Talk about taking a licking and keep on ticking.
"In the near future, a soldier who needs a quick look over the next hill will be able to aim his rifle skyward, fire a grenade-sized reconnaissance device and instantly receive imagery on his pocket computer," writes Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome.
"No special training or adaptation equipment is necessary" to fire the Firefly, from Israel's Rafael Armament Development Authority, or Israel Military Industry's Reconnaissance Rifle Grenade.
Grunts just fire the disposable "ballistic cameras" from "standard-issue M203 grenade launchers attached to M16 or other assault rifles," and then wait for the pictures to come back, 8 seconds and 600 meters later.
In this way, the ballisitc cameras a lot like the pint-sized drones which have become so popular among American company commanders in Iraq.
In 2002, the U.S. Army had 25 year-long Raven unmanned mini-planes; today, company and platoon chiefs are using about 800 in combat.
"Why the boom?" I asked in Wired a few months back.
Eyes in the sky keep soldiers from getting killed. "The way you used to get intel on the battlefield was you fought for it, sending your squad into a building, forcing your way in," says
formerArmy captain Phillip Carter. Now company commanders can see around corners and over hills - a God's-eye perspective that once was the domain of generals, with their Predators, manned spy planes, and satellites.
The Ravens are simple to use -- one of the best-known operators is a cook. But, with no guidance system to operate, the ballistic cameras would be easier still: "point and shoot," to use a cliche. Which means the ability to see a battlezone from above could shift from a general to a captain to a buck private, rifle in hand.
Had this in Splinter Cell for a couple years now...
Thanks for posting this very interesting article.
The cook probably uses it to find where his GIs are at chow time.
Thanks- that's astounding.
bump
So Israel IS Asimov's Foundation? I often have thought so.
And .. I do believe we are the wonderful people who sold Israel the amazing drones .. and the bunker buster bombs to destroy this muslim attack on the rest of civilation.
The technical creativity of the Israeli's is wonderful to see.
Hopefully their development of the Arrow anti-missile missile will protect them from the madmen in Iran.
The Iranians and the Palestineians are indirectly responsible for the development of these neeto-jet weapons. Hopefully they are enough to insure Israel's existance for many decades to come!
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