Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes Easily to Gamers

May 20, 2009

The U.S. Navy is equipping some of its vessels with Israeli-made Mini-Typhoon 12.7mm remotely controlled machine-guns.

The 370-pound system, which can be fired by an operator in a remote location, holds 230 rounds, sufficient for 25 seconds of rat-tat-tat. Strategy Page notes that the weapon is an effective defense against small boats such as those used by suicide bombers.

So, who might the Navy turn to for Mini-Typhoon duty? Gamers, reports Strategy Page:

The Mini-Typhoon uses a day/night vidcam and a stabilizer. The remote operator has an automatic target tracker, and can easily hit small boats two kilometers away... Operators with video game experience can be quickly trained to operate the weapon.

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Comments

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes ...

Submitted by GoodRobotUs on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 17:04.

They'll have to nerf it in the patch, it's way over-powered.

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by DarkSaber on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 11:33.

But does the turret have regenerating health? Most modern gamers won't touch it with a 10-foot pole otherwise, because it would be 'too frustrating'.

--------------------------------------------------

I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

-------------------------------------------------- I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes ...

Submitted by Chaplain99 on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 10:46.

25 seconds? Where's my unlimited ammo belt?!

"HEY! LISTEN!"

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by Verbinator on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 09:10.

Queue up the anti-government, anti-war, anti-military, anti-viedo game outrage and protests.

Personally, I think this is pretty cool. Unless you're being targeted by the weapons system.

--Verbinator

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes ...

Submitted by Brokenscope on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 07:02.

Isn't that just a remotely operated browning m-2?

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 05:55.

My god jack thompson was right!!! Ha! Not often that those words are spoken. I just wanted to screw with his vanity googling.

It sounds like anyone with hand eye coordination and a brain that can grasp deflection shooting could do it. I think they need to be more specific about the hardware, are you controlling it with a gamepad, a keyboard/mouse/joystick or a wiimote? Since it's remote controlled, I hope the interface is moddable, I'd want shooting the weapon to produce a sound effect like the weapon in Space Invaders and if there's a particularly big terrorist boat (Or perhaps "aquatic technical" will be the official term) it should sound like the mothership

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by Valdearg on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 10:26.

Though I'm not familiar with this particular technology, I know that a lot of other remotely operated tech in the military uses modified Xbox360 controllers. I'd imagine that would really be all you need to operate something like this.

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by Canary Wundaboy on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 05:53.

Still doesnt sound quite as cool as controlling the aerial (you know that took me about 5 attempts to spell?) drone, when those things have missiles and crap on the wings.

Check out my blog - http://serveratcapacity.blogspot.com

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by Michael Chandra on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 05:21.

Because all non-gamers are clearly morons.

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by beemoh on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 08:37.

You're only just realising this now? ;P

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 07:22.

I don't think they are saying that non-gamers are incapable of operating the gun. Ithink what the writer means is that gamers don't need as long to train to operate it effectively.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Re: Controlling Navy's Anti-terrorist Weapon System Comes ...

Submitted by InJM on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 05:07.

These sounds like the turrents on the Millenium Falcon.

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DorthLous: Anybody tried Hiversaire? Thoughts?05/22/2013 - 5:48pm

E. Zachary Knight: New Humble Bundle Weekly Sale. Alan Wake: https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly No Linux or Mac support. :(05/22/2013 - 1:46pm

E. Zachary Knight: Microsoft talks about the lack of backward compatability. You're backwards. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192801/If_youre_backwards_compatible_youre_really_backwards.php05/22/2013 - 1:39pm

E. Zachary Knight: That is absolutely nuts there. As bad an experience XBox Indie Games was, the problems weren't with the self published side of things. Forcing a publisher onto independent studios is not going to help.05/22/2013 - 10:43am

MaskedPixelante: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-22-microsoft-wont-let-indies-self-publish-on-xbox-one And the hits just keep on coming.05/22/2013 - 9:20am

E. Zachary Knight: AE: You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking the night off.05/22/2013 - 7:40am

E. Zachary Knight: To continue the confused and convoluted messaging system present in EA, They are making Wii U games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192753/EA_is_working_on_Wii_U_games_after_all.php05/22/2013 - 7:33am

Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

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