Army Develops Unmanned Helicopter Sniper System, Uses Xbox 360 Controller
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 16 of April , 2009 at 2:26 pm
In December of last year, we saw an unmanned helicopter system mounting a shotgun. The Army has had the same idea, except their unmanned helicopter system is much bigger, and packs a sniper rifle instead. The Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) is based on the Vigilante 502 unmanned helicopter, a half ton beast that can fly at 120 mph for over 5 hours. The Vigilante can carry up to 150 pounds of payload, which is more than enough to mount small and medium caliber machine guns, a shotgun, a beam immobilizer, or in this case, a sniper rifle.
The rifle currently mounted on the ARSS is a RND Manufacturing Edge 2000 Rifle firing .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges at up to 10 rounds per minute. The key feature of the ARSS system, though, is the turret mount, which is actively stabilized to allow for precision shots in flight. The mount includes dual zoom cameras, and the entire system is controlled remotely with an Xbox 360 controller.
The ARSS is scheduled to begin airborne testing this July.
[ Vigilante and Space Dynamics ] VIA [ Popular Mechanics ]
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Category: Military
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