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FireScout scores first drug bust

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 14, 2010 at 12:41pm

From BotJunkie: "Last week, one of the Fire Scouts currently undergoing testing aboard the USS McInerney managed a real drug bust after noticing what turned out to be a “go fast” drug boat on radar. The Fire Scout shadowed the boat for 3 hours, and after it rendezvoused with a fishing boat, the Coast Guard moved in and nabbed the baddies.
...
No matter how cool and useful it might be, the Fire Scout program for the Army is still canceled. Sad face. But, it looks like it might at least have a future in the Navy."


(pic also from BotJunkie)


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Comments

  • Ron Jacobs April 15, 2010 at 7:19am
    Looks like the video above is all IR (infrared?) footage. They appear to be mucking about with exposure and "inversion" of the image switching fom a "negative" to a "positive" image. There are other posts and youtube videos out there with "better" footage. We have to rememberall this footage is suffering from compression for use online. its most cool that they used this right off a training/test mission to nab some big bad guys. So cool.
  • Admin
    Morli April 15, 2010 at 1:14am
    :)) . Ignore button ,hmm, we need one too
  • Bill Porter April 14, 2010 at 9:21pm
    One of the first things I learned when operation DoD drones, they always have a fault to complain about. It's just a matter if it's severe enough to ground the mission over. And If there's people to impress standing over your shoulder during an expensive sea test, you tend to hit the ignore button more then you should.
  • T3
    Rory Paul April 14, 2010 at 9:17pm
    Did anybody else notice the "fault" checksum message....what where they running a file update mid flight ; ) I suspect there automated object tracking feature was not working looked like they tried to lock that rectangle around the boat once or twice...
  • Stephen McAmis April 14, 2010 at 9:07pm
    Ron... that's a good video. I suppose I made a mistake when I was asking about the footage... it was, after all, the thing in action and not an attempt to 'push' the fire hawk... still it seems like the operator would have tried to gain more detail with some of the other optics as opposed to just thermals. I guess it goes to the primary mission... keep an eye on the bad guys till the USS Mcinerny arrived on scene.
  • Bill Porter April 14, 2010 at 8:58pm
    Woot Navy! We have all the cooler drones than the Army anyway.
  • Jack Crossfire April 14, 2010 at 5:39pm
    Get a more stable camera gimbal.
  • Ron Jacobs April 14, 2010 at 4:02pm
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMlCXXJ3_tI&feature=related

    forgot to put the link in...
  • Ron Jacobs April 14, 2010 at 4:02pm
    Here is a link to some better video footage; sort of a montage of the different types of vision the fire scout has , i guess?
  • Stephen McAmis April 14, 2010 at 2:59pm
    I might actually have a line on this to a certain extent... I will see what I can find out. It might not be directly related to Fire Hawk but hopefully will provide some insight. and of course there's the possibility I won't be able to learn a thing... still, worth a shot.
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