[HN Gopher] DARPA Wants Millions to Design an Unmanned 'Flying G...
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       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...
        
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       (page generated 2020-02-18 23:00 UTC)