DICK TRACY CONTROLS FOR ISRAEL’S DRONES

“Israeli troops are now wear­ing gear that Dick Tracy would be proud of,” the AP reports, “tiny video screens, worn on the wrist, that dis­play video shot by unmanned airplanes.”

Similar screens have been in use for close to a year in the Israeli military’s attack heli­copters, help­ing pilots iden­tify and strike Palestinian tar­gets within sec­onds. The tech­nol­ogy, also used in tanks and armored vehi­cles, was a closely guarded secret until the com­pany that devel­oped it offered reporters a rare glimpse at the sys­tem this week…
The screen being field-​​tested by a lim­ited num­ber of foot sol­diers is about 3 inches wide, and weighs just a few ounces. Code-​​named V-​​Rambo, it’s attached to the wrist by a vel­cro strap. The LCD screens dis­play color video beamed directly from drones in real time at 30 frames per sec­ond — the same rate as broad­cast TV.
Attack heli­copters have been fit­ted with 5-​​inch screens. The Video Receiver sys­tems also include small recep­tion units that are installed on the vehi­cles and heli­copters or car­ried in sol­diers’ vests.
The new tech­nol­ogy is con­sid­ered much more than a nov­elty.
Military drones have been used by Israel since the early 1980s. [The Israelis have also designed many of the drones used by American forces — ed.] But until recently, the infor­ma­tion they gath­ered was sent to a ground com­mand cen­ter that inter­preted it and then shared it with forces in the field. The Tadiran sys­tems allow the infor­ma­tion to be received instantly by the var­i­ous forces, com­pany offi­cials said. The drones are still con­trolled by a ground com­mand cen­ter, but the forces have the abil­ity to guide the cam­era to meet their spe­cific needs.
This real-​​time infor­ma­tion has enabled Israel to per­fect its abil­ity to attack from the sky. During more than four years of fight­ing with the Palestinians, Israeli heli­copter air strikes have killed dozens of combatants. 

March 7th, 2005 | Sabra Tech | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.