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From Danger Room Blog:
The the counterterrorist car chase of the future.
Somewhere in East Africa or the southern Arabian peninsula, several years from now, an unassuming SUV drives off the road and rolls down its window. From the passenger seat, there’s a blast as a missile shoots into the air. It careens as far as 60 miles, in pursuit of terrorists traveling in their own SUVs, who’ll never see the light truck that launched it.
This is a future that the U.S. Special Operations Command wants as it fights the nation’s shadow wars in places like Somalia and Yemen. A new solicitation seeks what it calls a “Medium Range Precision Strike System.” Obscured within that anodyne phrase is an ambitious weapons system optimized for stealthy strikes with minimal footprints — for those times when a drone strike just isn’t the right tool for the job.
The missile system the commandos want fits into a “light, commercially available truck.” The whole thing has to be completely self-contained within the SUV, weighing no more than 900 lbs. — as much as five 180 lb. dudes, sans gear — and no longer than 200 inches. “All cables, power sources, fire control and any other required accessories” have to be packed in as well, because the missile system has to open fire from the open road. You might want to call shotgun.
Continue Reading “SUVs of Death: Commandos Want Missiles in Their Trucks” »
The the counterterrorist car chase of the future.
Somewhere in East Africa or the southern Arabian peninsula, several years from now, an unassuming SUV drives off the road and rolls down its window. From the passenger seat, there’s a blast as a missile shoots into the air. It careens as far as 60 miles, in pursuit of terrorists traveling in their own SUVs, who’ll never see the light truck that launched it.
This is a future that the U.S. Special Operations Command wants as it fights the nation’s shadow wars in places like Somalia and Yemen. A new solicitation seeks what it calls a “Medium Range Precision Strike System.” Obscured within that anodyne phrase is an ambitious weapons system optimized for stealthy strikes with minimal footprints — for those times when a drone strike just isn’t the right tool for the job.
The missile system the commandos want fits into a “light, commercially available truck.” The whole thing has to be completely self-contained within the SUV, weighing no more than 900 lbs. — as much as five 180 lb. dudes, sans gear — and no longer than 200 inches. “All cables, power sources, fire control and any other required accessories” have to be packed in as well, because the missile system has to open fire from the open road. You might want to call shotgun.
Continue Reading “SUVs of Death: Commandos Want Missiles in Their Trucks” »
