"…Named for the many-tentacled mythological creature, the Kraken is the latest and most fearsome defensive weapon for American bases. Bloodied by mass insurgent assaults on isolated Afghan outposts, two years ago the Army combined all the most sophisticated cameras, ground-scanning radars, acoustic gunshot-detectors and robotic machine gun mounts into a single, networked system with lots of deadly arms extending in all directions.
Packed for transport inside a single shipping container, installed in the center of a walled outpost and monitored by a pair of soldiers with laptops, Kraken "offers the most force protection per cubic foot compared to any other system," according to Tom O'Neill, the Army program manager. First Brigade has the first-ever copy of the Kraken to be deployed overseas.
Kraken is mostly autonomous. The mast-mounted radar detects people and vehicles and slews the cameras to follow them. The cameras, positioned alongside the radar, can also be pointed by sonic sensors that detect incoming gunfire and triangulate the source. At present, the two 7.62-millimeter guns, set atop an outpost's walls, are remotely controlled by the operators rather than slaved to the sensors, but Army sources say that could change in the future. At that point the new system will be able to keep watch over sleeping soldiers with practically zero human input…"
Interesting article about the actual tech in the US Army.
link
Hope you enjoy!.
Amicalement
Armand
