{"id":4634,"date":"2009-04-24T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2009-04-23T12:06:29","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T17:06:29","slug":"hgf-click-and-shoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4634","title":{"rendered":"HGF: Click and Shoot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wired.com\/photos\/uncategorized\/2009\/04\/17\/arss_dr_2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With all this talk of torture of late it would be easy to overlook the fact that American forces, often at their own peril, have taken extreme measures to minimize civilian and even combatant casualties in defense of our interests around the world.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wired.com\/defense\/2009\/04\/army-tests-new.html\">Last week&#8217;s standoff between pirates<\/a> and the U.S. Navy in the Indian Ocean ended  famously with three sniper shots, as a drone watched overhead. In 2008, French  special forces captured  six pirates on land after ransom had been paid. &#8220;There were four helicopters  involved,&#8221; <em>The Independent<\/em> reported at the time. &#8220;A sniper [in a Puma  helicopter] shot out the motor of the pirates&#8217; four-wheel drive vehicle. A  second helicopter [a Gazelle] then landed nearby, allowing the six pirates to be  arrested&#8221; \u2014 without any casualties.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Coast Guard&#8217;s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) uses  helicopter-borne snipers to take out drug-running boats. They are accurate  enough to knock out engines without harming the crew or damaging fuel tanks.  &#8220;The driver just threw his hands up,&#8221; concludes the description  of one such action in <em>Men&#8217;s Vogue, <\/em>after all three engines were  disabled with three shots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The latest installment in technology designed for the precision required for this policy: behold our latest Hot Gear Friday Installment, the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Autonomous_Rotorcraft_Sniper_System\">Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sniping from a chopper currently takes tons of skill and training. But ARSS  is literally point-and-shoot for the operator on the ground, using a  videogame-type controller. The software makes all the necessary corrections, and  the system should ensure first-round kills at several hundred yards. The secret  is in the control system and stabilized turret (on the right in the picture  above), which is currently fitted with a powerful RND Manufacturing Edge  2000 rifle specifically designed for sniping work, using the heavyweight .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>HT Dr. Dave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With all this talk of torture of late it would be easy to overlook the fact that American forces, often at their own peril, have taken extreme measures to minimize civilian and even combatant casualties in defense of our interests around the world. Last week&#8217;s standoff between pirates and the U.S. Navy in the Indian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hot-gear-friday","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}