I can't sleep right now, so I figured I'd share a random thought.
Recently, American troops abandoned positions in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan, which has come to be known as the "Valley of Death".
Now, I don't know all the politics of it. I'm sure they weren't getting much help from locals, I understand that soldiers stationed there were coming back with substance abuse issues, some Afghan troops allied with us refused to fight, and I'm guessing it was part of no clear objective. All very complex. Good thing to get out.
But having seen segments by NBC's Richard Engel on the area, chief among the soldier's immediate concerns was the inability to see the enemy so as to accurately return fire in the night. The area's shrouded in trees and brush, and it's hard to get a bead on the enemy firing at you...
Maybe it's me, but I can't conceive that DARPA doesn't have a ready solution to this obstacle. At its most basic, three well-positioned microphones and some software should be able to triangulate the origin of incoming fire through discerning the different times at which each microphone picked up the sound. I also can't conceive that you couldn't hook up an automated weapon to said software, and with some safeguards in place (establishing allied troop locations as no-fire zones), have it do at least part of the work for you, and become more precise with the strike with a larger network of microphones.
Granted, I'm no tech guy, but it seems to me the tech is available for this sort of system, and is yet not being deployed for the benefit of our troops.
Random thought over. "Sleep: Take Two" begins...
Recently, American troops abandoned positions in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan, which has come to be known as the "Valley of Death".
Now, I don't know all the politics of it. I'm sure they weren't getting much help from locals, I understand that soldiers stationed there were coming back with substance abuse issues, some Afghan troops allied with us refused to fight, and I'm guessing it was part of no clear objective. All very complex. Good thing to get out.
But having seen segments by NBC's Richard Engel on the area, chief among the soldier's immediate concerns was the inability to see the enemy so as to accurately return fire in the night. The area's shrouded in trees and brush, and it's hard to get a bead on the enemy firing at you...
Maybe it's me, but I can't conceive that DARPA doesn't have a ready solution to this obstacle. At its most basic, three well-positioned microphones and some software should be able to triangulate the origin of incoming fire through discerning the different times at which each microphone picked up the sound. I also can't conceive that you couldn't hook up an automated weapon to said software, and with some safeguards in place (establishing allied troop locations as no-fire zones), have it do at least part of the work for you, and become more precise with the strike with a larger network of microphones.
Granted, I'm no tech guy, but it seems to me the tech is available for this sort of system, and is yet not being deployed for the benefit of our troops.
Random thought over. "Sleep: Take Two" begins...
