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Robotic Cannon Loses Control, Kills 9

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the keep-quiet-on-the-terminator-jokes dept.

TJ_Phazerhacki writes "A new high tech weapon system demonstrated one of the prime concerns circling smarter and smarter methods of defense last week — an Oerlikon GDF-005 cannon went wildly out of control during live fire test exercises in South Africa, killing 9. Scarily enough, this is far from the first instance of a smart weapon 'turning' on its handlers. 'Electronics engineer and defence company CEO Richard Young says he can't believe the incident was purely a mechanical fault. He says his company, C2I2, in the mid 1990s, was involved in two air defence artillery upgrade programmes, dubbed Projects Catchy and Dart. During the shooting trials at Armscor's Alkantpan shooting range, "I personally saw a gun go out of control several times," Young says. "They made a temporary rig consisting of two steel poles on each side of the weapon, with a rope in between to keep the weapon from swinging. The weapon eventually knocked the pol[e]s down."' The biggest concern seems to be finding the glitches in the system instead of reconsidering automated arms altogether."

8 of 580 comments (clear)

  1. ED-209 not available for comment by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Robotic Cannon Loses Control, Kills 9

    To be fair, it did give them 30 seconds to comply.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:ED-209 not available for comment by suprcvic · · Score: 5, Funny

      The fact that anybody is joking about 9 people losing their lives sickens mean. Have you all truly lost touch with reality to the point that the loss of human life is completely lost on you? Seriously?

  2. Finally by High+Hat · · Score: 5, Funny
    # kill -9

    ...for the real world!

  3. Re:Three Laws of Robotics by geekoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes... did anyone even read the books before posting that? seriously, there are issues with those laws.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  4. Re:No pun intended by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The kill switch was working fine. It's the off switch that was the problem.

  5. I told you before... by jtroutman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guns don't kill people. Robotic, automated, 35mm anti-aircraft, twin-barreled guns kill people.

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    I stole this sig from a more creative user.
  6. En-gag-ing.... by jlawson382 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you still there?

  7. Re:I, For One, Welcome Our... by courseofhumanevents · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know, totally. Makes no sense. And why does everyone always use Arial? I can't stand it. One of the aspects of having the ability to choose fonts is using DIFFERENT fonts than others. Why can't the authors just pick a different font? Is it really that difficult? I, for one, am sick and tired of always seeing the same font everywhere. And all those gray keyboards. Seriously, what's with that? Gray isn't the greatest color; it's not that hard to pick something better. A little design philosophy and your keyboard suddenly looks three times as good. What's the problem, here, people? And don't even get me started on Apple Jacks. Why the hell do they call them Apple Jacks if they don't taste like apples? Go ahead, mod me down. You know I'm right about everything.