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Stara Technologies Mini-Missile Precisely Guides Payloads to Targets
Posted by Charlie White at 3:44 AM on November 21, 2007
This sensor guidance system from Stara Technologies looks like a tiny precision missile, and that's basically what it is, but it's a whole lot more sophisticated than meets the eye. It's not specifically designed to deliver explosives, but when you toss it out the window of an airplane (or a Predator drone as you see here), its precision guidance system can deliver it to whatever exact coordinates you desire. It opens a parachute at the last minute to safely deliver your payload, weighing anywhere from one to 400 pounds. Does it work? Recently it proved it could deliver the goods to within around 10 feet of its target. This could be used for good or ill—from blood packets for someone severely injured, to spy gear or chemical weapons sniffers. [Stara Technologies, via Crave]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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Pope John Peeps II
Posted 1:45 PM 20/11/07
@wezelboy: Or a 400 pound kill-bot armed with a recoilless 300-round-a-second shotgun.
Pope John Peeps II
wezelboy
Posted 1:36 PM 20/11/07
Looks like the ideal delivery device for a 400lb Fuel-Air bomb.
wezelboy
Windhawk
Posted 12:37 PM 20/11/07
Predator drone... Oh, there will be blood packets alright.
Windhawk
frigg
Posted 12:21 PM 20/11/07
Food boxes dropped from planes into camps of starving refugees are often way off the mark. Something like this could not only increase the accuracy of food delivered from the air, but also increase the number of refugees bonked on the head by falling boxes of food.
frigg
Pope John Peeps II
Posted 12:02 PM 20/11/07
Blood packets for the severely injured? Seriously? That's very silly, unless it's also going to precision-drop a medic to help them out.
I'm thinking spy drones. Or maybe just 400 pound, precision-dropped bombs.
Pope John Peeps II
JJ910
Posted 2:44 PM 20/11/07
Or you could spend 1/10th the money and blow the cr*p out of everyone in a 10 mile radius with your "drop". If you are crazy enough to drop a lazer guided missile on someone, you shouldn't care about where exactly you drop it. A few miles + or - who cares!
We spend all this tax money on building something so inane when there are rational logical solutions available. Don't ask how I know this. I just do from sources.
JJ910
nutbastard
Posted 1:59 PM 20/11/07
@Pope John Peeps II:
"round a minute"
i always hate the whole firing rate thing being measured in rounds per minute. why not just publish the delay between shots, where smaller is bettter? oh yeah, those military types want BIG numbers to be better. Much easier to understand that way.
it's just annoying knowing that it couldn't really deliver 300 rounds in a minute. even if you could reload the damn thing AND carry that much ammo, it would heat up too quickly and probably fail catastrophically at around 40 rounds.
nutbastard
nutbastard
Posted 1:56 PM 20/11/07
finally! i am so friggin tired of dropping onto Strogg planets in freefall coffin-thingies!
nutbastard
weatherman
Posted 4:03 PM 20/11/07
@Pope John Peeps II: Well, dropping 400 lbs of medical supplies while the medic parachutes would seem to make some sense.
I can't see this thing being any use for weaponry - goodness knows we deliver that pretty well already. But for resupply and humanitarian aid it seems perfect. Nice to see military technology like precision-guided munitions find other uses as well.
@JJ910: if you don't understand the need for precision bombs, you don't understand modern warfare.
weatherman
inconel710
Posted 3:09 PM 20/11/07
The USAF already has the GPS guided Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) for blowing the hell out one mud hut, but the one next to it.
@JJ910 - WTF? Are you talking about nukes, because that's only weapon with a kill radius over a mile. You're either a nut or an idiot.
inconel710
DirkusMaximus
Posted 6:26 PM 20/11/07
@Pope John Peeps II: With a payload of 400lbs, I'm pretty sure you could stuff a medic in there too. You have to be sure to use them quickly and rotate stock though, they don't have very good shelf life once you pack them.
DirkusMaximus
electrikecho
Posted 12:50 AM 21/11/07
... But look at the picture, people! That's not a bomb, it's a U.S. Army kinder surprise!
electrikecho