Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Gorgon Reappears. Perseus, please call your office.

Perseus with the head of Medusa, the Gorgon.

The Air Force is channeling Greek mythology.

Surely y'all remember the Gorgon. You know, Clash of the Titans with Harry Hamblin cutting off Medusa's head. Well, meet the Gorgon Stare:



In ancient times, Gorgon was a mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them. In modern times, Gorgon may be one of the military's most valuable new tools.

This winter, the Air Force is set to deploy to Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare, which will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town.

The system, made up of nine video cameras mounted on a remotely piloted aircraft, can transmit live images to soldiers on the ground or to analysts tracking enemy movements. It can send up to 65 different images to different users; by contrast, Air Force drones today shoot video from a single camera over a "soda straw" area the size of a building or two.

With the new tool, analysts will no longer have to guess where to point the camera, said Maj. Gen. James O. Poss, the Air Force's assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. "Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we're looking at, and we can see everything."


So how much longer do you think it will be before the evil dwarf Janet the Second deploys these to spy on Americans? Perseus, call your office.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would be a shame if these were deployed in CONUS and someone's private remotely controlled hobby plane smashed into it.

A real shame. Anyone into hobby planes?

Anonymous said...

For your interest:

Reference: Gorgon Stare–USAF Goes Nuts (Again)

http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/01/reference-gorgon-stare-us-air-force-goes-nuts-again/

Journal: Gorgon Stare (All Eyes, No Brain)

http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/01/journal-gorgon-stare-all-eyes-no-brain/

And links on the pages.

Defender said...

Maybe they're already in use here. How would we know? Abdul al-Raghed can't seem to tell where the shots are coming from in Predator gun camera footage.
Some Dark Side citizen will read about this and hail it as the answer to urban crime. The police are having so much trouble neutralizing gangs even though they have their mugshots and know how they dress and where they hang out.
The 500-foot-long TSA lines around the holidays sent a definite message about what Americans are not only willing to tolerate, but willing to embrace.

Anonymous said...

I guess it's time to tell everyone about this fine product:
http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html

What it does to retina's is not nice, sure it can do damage to the nice man's cameras. don't worry, they won't hesitate to use them on U either.
WayneB

Anonymous said...

How soon? Just about as soon as she can develop justification, or obfuscation, for /about its use.

Mark Matis said...

We will at war before that happens.

Remember, it's Clinton rules. And probably should be Waco and Ruby Ridge rules as well.

Anonymous said...

To Artic Patriot:

This works a lot better. "MIJI"

http://www.tpub.com/content/istts/14222/css/14222_88.htm

The Wigpeeler

Anonymous said...

That laser anonymous posted at 9:49 won't work. They have an optical coating on the lenses that will diffract any beam like this. We use it on our Apache program (OIP coated optics) to protect not only the sensors but the pilot/gunner as well.

Technology is so rapidly advancing that successful restoration is becoming more and more difficult. Time is not on our side in terms of tech.

Sean

Anonymous said...

Curtis brings good stuff:

"...They envision it will have civilian applications... The Department of Homeland Security is exploring the technology’s potential, an industry official said...”

No sh**, Sherlock.

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that the only reason we're ... well... Let's approach this from a different POV.

Afghan's have a long history of facing every empire that's ever tried them, and kicking Empire's @$$. Sorry -- ours included.

The more I think about it, the more I'm reminded of an old saw about "a rifle behind every blade of grass."

I don't suppose there's a rifle behind every Afghan bush, but probably something like 3% of em...?

hMMM....

There's another population they're going to have to deal with at some point in their "grand plan" of Global governance -- and the American Redneck is just as tenacious and implacable a foe as any Afghan tribesmen...

The more I think of this, of late, the more I realize all of this isn't about making our Republic into a socialist-state, but rather about tearing down our sovereignty to enable their globalist agenda.

Which makes me wonder if all this Afghan mess isn't some real-world lab exercise to help 'em work the bugs out of all the toys they're planning on using here at home when the time comes.

AP -- I don't know of any hobby-plane that can pull off the kind of altitude where these "Reapers" operate...

Chaplain Tim said...

From page two of the story:

And taking a page from high-tech companies such as Google, the Air Force will store its reams of video on servers placed in used shipping containers in Iowa.

Google's new server center is being built in Iowa, just across the river from Omaha, Nebraska. Next to a shiny new power plant, so they have plenty of electricity. Shouldn't be too hard to find the AF data center, it's probably pretty close to Google since the AF has Offutt AFB just down the river in Bellevue, NE. Offutt is also the home of Space Command and is/was in the running to be the home of Cyber Command.
Just a little intel from the upper midwest.

ranamacar

Anonymous said...

Sean,

Tech is always a two way street.....

s4r

ParaPacem said...

btw - does the Medusa head, at least the facial expression, remind you of Hilary Clinton?