but it's getting close.
Enter CROSSHAIRS/Iron Curtain. Now, interlinked miniature radars will instantly detect and track any fast-moving projectile in the vicinity, pinpointing the location of the firer and swivelling the vehicle's turret guns onto target. If the incoming RPG seems likely to actually hit, the Iron Curtain system arms itself and, as the warhead comes close, a countermunition mounted on the edge of the vehicle's roof fires downward and blasts it.
The downward-angling countermunitions are meant to avoid any snags with the system inadvertently blowing away innocent bystanders or shooting up the scenery. Provided nobody is standing too close by, all should be well.
Meanwhile, even as the RPG is being blasted in midair, CROSSHAIRS - if necessary without human input - is raking the place it was fired from with a hail of fire from a .50-calibre heavy machine gun, automatic grenade launcher or whatever the MRAP has in its top mount. Trucks within a convoy will cooperate automatically using a digital network, sharing out targets and hopefully avoiding any unfortunate friendly-fire accidents. It's possible to have a human check first before the trucks cut loose, but not necessary.
David Drake, call your office; do you have some kind of royalties you can ask on this? I mean, rocket-assisted artillery, counter-battery radar and GPS-guided shells, THEL and now...
I love this description:Given that we're talking here about an array of automated weaponry able to pick a speeding rocket out of the air while simultaneously shooting dead the person who fired it, the identity of the agency behind CROSSHAIRS will not surprise many regular readers. It is of course DARPA, the leather-clad motorcycling lone wolf your mother forbids you to have anything to do with of the metaphorical boffinry-bureau-boyfriend community.
7 comments:
Hell, the automated cooperation is what got my attention. How long before one gunner is making alpha strikes using every swinging gun in the unit with one crosshairs and trigger?
How long before one gunner is making alpha strikes using every swinging gun in the unit with one crosshairs and trigger?
Oh, pshaw. The technology to do that has existed since WW2. The only difference between centrally-controlled gunnery on an aircraft carrier and what you're talking about is the fact that commo between vehicles would have to be by short-range radio, WiFi or something similar.
Which, I might point out, can be jammed.
Philo, I had heard of that; no idea what the status is as far as ready-to-go or not.
Phelps, I doubt it's a big surprise to anyone, but I take your point; both are gone. Philo, that's why yours isn't showing anymore.
That was something I wondered about, jamming. I'd guess some kind of frequency-hopping encrypted setup? With the default if signal lost of each vehicle acting autonomously?
Laser is a lot harder to jam, and IR can get through the dust and such that they commonly deal with. Plus, with teh goons that we are dealing with, sophisticated electronic warfare is not part of the program.
And I agree that the what isn't necessarily a surprise, but the who (hopefully) is, and knowing that makes it a lot easier to figure out the how and defeat it.
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