Althouse: "Islamic State terrorists are using computer game inspired remote-controlled toy cars for launching bomb attacks on front lines..."

August 25, 2015

"Islamic State terrorists are using computer game inspired remote-controlled toy cars for launching bomb attacks on front lines..."

"Kurdish soldiers fighting the dreaded terror group in Syria and Iraq came across one of the cars, inspired by computer game Call Of Duty, after it failed to detonate...."

17 comments:

damikesc said...: I love the assumption that this idea came from video games (I don't even remember this from Call of Duty) and not from, oh, television and movies.; 8/25/15, 6:28 AM
Wince said...: Next, will ISIS torture prisoners by beating them with a length of orange "Hot Wheels" track?

Or that "Paddle Ball" toy with the flimsy elestic holding the small red rubber ball to the paddle with a staple.

Like every American kid in the 1970s.; 8/25/15, 6:49 AM
MayBee said...: Remote control cars have been around a lot longer than video games.; 8/25/15, 7:24 AM
Scott said...: Yeah, the remote control toy car bomb is a device in COD.

What I haven't seen evidence of in real life is the sentry gun. In COD, it's a light machine gun on a tripod that is aimed by a computer. The soldier sets it up in a doorway or alley, and it fires at anything downrange that moves. I've searched the internet several times but haven't yet found a picture of the weapon.

Who knows, maybe ISIS will invent one soon.; 8/25/15, 7:39 AM
Scott said...: Looked again. A few photos of experiments but no real portable sentry guns used by soldiers. Then there's this one.; 8/25/15, 7:45 AM
Unknown said...: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/22/18-year-old-video-gun-firing-drone-prompts-investigations-by-faa-police-in/; 8/25/15, 8:03 AM
Barry Dauphin said...: Perhaps a new way to disperse chemical weapons.; 8/25/15, 8:08 AM
Anonymous said...: 1988, Dirty Harry in "Dead Pool"

RC Car bombs

doesn't anybody watch the classics anymore?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3MOtMklMhg; 8/25/15, 8:13 AM
SteveR said...: The most advanced work by the Arabs since they created the numbering system. I'm not sure the Prophet would approve, its very 21st century.; 8/25/15, 9:14 AM
Nichevo said...: Dead Pool, 1985.; 8/25/15, 9:30 AM
Anonymous said...: wiki:

The Dead Pool is a 1988 American action flim directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. It is the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry film series, set in San Francisco, California.

IMDB:

The Dead Pool (1988)

PS: I think Patricia Clarkson is spectacular...; 8/25/15, 9:34 AM
Nichevo said...: Sorry, Sarge, cross - posted. I'll take your word for the date. Ahh, they don't make them like that anymore, do they?; 8/25/15, 9:53 AM
Paul Snively said...: Did it show up in COD or Company of Heroes first? Anyway, isn't the implicit "no way these primitives could have come up with it themselves" assumption straight-up racism?; 8/25/15, 10:44 AM
Bobby said...: Scott,

I have never played these games, so I don't know for sure if this is what you're looking for, but try looking at the Samsung SGR-A1.; 8/25/15, 10:53 AM
Big Mike said...: The Germans had the idea back in World War II. ISIS is improvising, just as Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) did before them.

@Scott, Bobby's right. Check out the Wiki reference.; 8/25/15, 11:05 AM
Quaestor said...: I was reminded of the Goliath immediately, and was prepared to write about it. Then I saw Big Mike had beaten me to the punch.

The Goliath remote-controlled tracked vehicle was designed for combat engineering tasks, however the concept and the execution never gelled. Goliaths were prone to embarrassing failures, such as a live bomb immobilized in a hidden swale halfway between friendly troops and the intended target.

One has to give ISIS credit for inventive use of other's technology, but one must also take note of the singular lack of inventiveness in the Muslim world as a whole. Nothing new has come out of that culture in 700 years. The contrast with Israel is striking.; 8/25/15, 11:30 AM
mikee said...: Sure, ooh and aah over the radio controlled bomber toys.

I'm still in awe about the use of Silly String to detect tripwires. Human ingenuity leaps out most boldly when need arises.; 8/25/15, 12:18 PM