As the technology facilitating the expansion of the surveillance
state becomes more advanced, the need for proximity to the target of the
surveillance diminishes. For example, very soon drones will be equipped
with lasers that can penetrate walls, map the interior of a home or other building, and scan a targeted individual’s genetic code from 50 yards with dizzying speed and accuracy. Additionally, the ability to keep drones perpetually airborne
is being engineered thanks to multi-million dollar research and
development grants offered by the Pentagon to companies on the edge of
technological advancement.
One such grant was recently awarded by DARPA (the secretive research and development agency inside the Pentagon) to a company working on reducing the size and increasing the power of laser-based optics used by snipers. Earlier this week, DARPA awarded Cubic Corporation $6 million to develop a “laser-emitting targeting computer” for American military snipers. According to a story in Wired, the “goal is to reduce the number of calculations the sniper and his teammate — a spotter — have to do before they can make an accurate shot.”
The government wants the device not only to have pinpoint accuracy, but to be small enough to fit on the sniper’s weapon, eliminating the need for the spotter altogether and enabling the shooter to identify and kill the target from heretofore impossible distances. Cubic Corporation is accustomed to making historic strides in distance-measuring devices. The company’s website boasts that in the 1960s its engineers created “Electrotape Distance Measuring Instrument — the world's first commercial distance surveying system to provide centimeter accuracy from 100 meters to 50 kilometers.”
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One such grant was recently awarded by DARPA (the secretive research and development agency inside the Pentagon) to a company working on reducing the size and increasing the power of laser-based optics used by snipers. Earlier this week, DARPA awarded Cubic Corporation $6 million to develop a “laser-emitting targeting computer” for American military snipers. According to a story in Wired, the “goal is to reduce the number of calculations the sniper and his teammate — a spotter — have to do before they can make an accurate shot.”
The government wants the device not only to have pinpoint accuracy, but to be small enough to fit on the sniper’s weapon, eliminating the need for the spotter altogether and enabling the shooter to identify and kill the target from heretofore impossible distances. Cubic Corporation is accustomed to making historic strides in distance-measuring devices. The company’s website boasts that in the 1960s its engineers created “Electrotape Distance Measuring Instrument — the world's first commercial distance surveying system to provide centimeter accuracy from 100 meters to 50 kilometers.”
Read More.....................
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