[HN Gopher] DARPA Wants Millions to Design an Unmanned 'Flying G... ___________________________________________________________________ DARPA Wants Millions to Design an Unmanned 'Flying Gun' Under Its New Gunslinger Author : ycnews Score : 28 points Date : 2020-02-18 19:13 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.thedrive.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.thedrive.com) | blakesterz wrote: | I remember at some point seeing an interview with someone that | was involved with the design of the A-10 Warthog and he described | it as something like a gun wrapped in an airplane. Unsurprisingly | this site mentions attempts to replace the A-10 Warthogs big gun. | caycep wrote: | this smells like an attempt to update the CAS concept; kind of | like an AC-130 that's more survivable or expendable with less | risk to a live pilot. | | That being said, I'd have expected them to make something like | a Reaper with guns instead of AGMs. I'm just not sure why they | are describing it as a "missile with guns" vs a "drone with | guns" | hindsightbias wrote: | A 30mm a-10 round weighs like .75kg. Would seem we could make CAS | anti-personnel drones for less weight and longer range. | | Of course you'd still need armor piercing, or maybe not if you | could make a drone that would foam engine intakes or optics. | mfer wrote: | Didn't they make a Marvel movie about this titled Captain America | Winter Soldier? | jacquesm wrote: | There are some youtube videos of people that have built their own | drone mounted handguns: | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI--wFfipvA | | There was another one of a rifle shooting at balloons from a | drone, but I can't find the video for that. | | Not quite a 'missile' but the basics seem to be relatively | straightforward and within the budget of hobbyists, the DARPA | program is mostly about scaling it up and dealing with the recoil | and mechanical and thermal stresses associated with mobile launch | platforms. Drones are severely weight constrained so getting this | to a level where it is combat ready is harder than it might seem. | I'm personally not sad about that, I think that any 'remote kill' | capability comes with its own special set of problems and that we | are very far from being ready to handle that responsibly, witness | the current assassination programs. | _iyig wrote: | 'Flying gun' reminds me of TIKAD, a drone-mounted assault rifle | developed at Duke University. Israel is buying/has bought them | for 'anti-terrorist operations': | | https://www.armyrecognition.com/weapons_defence_industry_mil... ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-02-18 23:00 UTC)