With Air Force's new drone, 'we can see everything'

[unhappycamper]

With Air Force's new drone, 'we can see everything'
By Ellen Nakashima and Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 2, 2011; 12:09 AM

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."

Questions persist, however, about whether the military has the capability to sift through huge quantities of imagery quickly enough to convey useful data to troops in the field.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "All your everything are belong to us." - Evangelical Air Crusaders (R)

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Smirk." - The Gorgons (R)

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. I find it interesting that you chose a shot of the RAF "Red Arrows"....

A team in no way associated with the US Air Force, in an attempt to make your point.

I highly doubt you would find an evangelical among them.
Not all demonstration teams are created equal.

[malaise]

3. Then they know they are slaughtering innocents?

:puke:

[baldguy]

4. They're not innocents, they're Muslims.

:sarcasm:

[malaise]

6. True

:hi:

[bemildred]

5. Yeaz, yeah, "Big Brother is watching", we know. nt

[sarcasmo]

7. World Police trying out a Big Brothers toy in the middle east before they bring it stateside.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Quote of the Day from the NYT

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Machines will definitely be able to observe us and understand us better. Where that leads is uncertain."

HARTMUT NEVEN, a computer scientist and vision expert at Google.

[MadHound]

9. What makes you think that they haven't already tried it out stateside?

After all, not all UFO's are aliens from outer space. Some of them are simply civilian sightings of our most advanced aerial vehicles.

[kestrel91316]

10. My dad, who worked for many years in the USAF on the development of

drones, would be very pleased at their reconnaisance capabilities. That was his area of expertise. But I am quite sure he would not be happy with their current use in ATTACKING CIVILIANS.

Shame on the US military.

[DeSwiss]

11. K&R

The man says: "We can see everything." Except we don't seem to be able to see how we're turning into the monsters we once thought we were fighting. Video surveillance. Phone taps. Email reading. RFID tags & national ID cards. TSA scans and pat-downs. Predator kills. And now, Gorgon stares.

BIG BROTHER knows all, hears all, reads all. Sees all. Kills all - if he wants to. And all of it just like a video game. Virtual reality imitates life.

- And coming soon to a city near you. Very soon.......

[neverforget]

12. So how many people does it take to watch all that video? Too much info

is as bad as too little.

[Cid_B]

13. Probably worked into the development...

The soda straw view can be frustrating...

Up UP!! No! Left! Is that a truck? Nope.. cow...

[Romulox]

14. Al Qaeda's #2 man better LOOKOUT! nt

[Toucano]

17. +1 n/t

[timo]

15. my what big eyes you have obama

the better to kill the shit out of little muslim kids my dear!!!

[Toucano]

18. Oh yeah? Where's Osama bin Laden, then?

Hmmm?