Real close. My neutron source was more powerful (a lot) and the drone was bigger (and was bullet resistant). A key part is the software to analyze the return signals. Challenging then (we had it), but easy now. Could have saved a lot of lives and limbs. We also came up with a way of remote detonating the blasting caps they were using for the big ones. But they gave big bucks to Lockheed for something that didn’t work and couldn’t be used on Afghan roads.
In the era of mainframe computers there used to be a saying. No one ever got fired for buying IBM. The equivalent among the American military industrial complex I suppose is Lockheed Martin.
Yep. Despite many efforts to go small and creative, that is usually crushed by the big guys or the contracting officers. Even when you get the money put in the budget for your solution, the big guys can swoop in and take the money. And then deliver crap.
To the mindset of the Executive Vice President of Sales at Lockheed Martin, China are the good guys (creates market demand). New companies on the scene such as yours are the bad guys (creates excess supply). Harsh, but once you peer into the mind of Sales it's not much of an exaggeration.
Caveat: while never having met them I do hold a fondness for Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich.
Think of the IED (improvised explosive devices, aka little cheap grenade-like bombs) buried under dirt roads during the Iraq wars, waiting for US troops to drive over them. Lots of our personnel lost legs that way. Revodude's contraption would fly inside a drone, detect the IEDs with fancy physics. Then it emits some electromagnetic pulse to set off the trigger. Bomb blows up with no one around. Threat neutralized.
Real close. My neutron source was more powerful (a lot) and the drone was bigger (and was bullet resistant). A key part is the software to analyze the return signals. Challenging then (we had it), but easy now. Could have saved a lot of lives and limbs. We also came up with a way of remote detonating the blasting caps they were using for the big ones. But they gave big bucks to Lockheed for something that didn’t work and couldn’t be used on Afghan roads.
In the era of mainframe computers there used to be a saying. No one ever got fired for buying IBM. The equivalent among the American military industrial complex I suppose is Lockheed Martin.
Yep. Despite many efforts to go small and creative, that is usually crushed by the big guys or the contracting officers. Even when you get the money put in the budget for your solution, the big guys can swoop in and take the money. And then deliver crap.
To the mindset of the Executive Vice President of Sales at Lockheed Martin, China are the good guys (creates market demand). New companies on the scene such as yours are the bad guys (creates excess supply). Harsh, but once you peer into the mind of Sales it's not much of an exaggeration.
Caveat: while never having met them I do hold a fondness for Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich.
😳
In English, for us kids in the back?
“Safe, remote bomb detection and detonation”?
Think of the IED (improvised explosive devices, aka little cheap grenade-like bombs) buried under dirt roads during the Iraq wars, waiting for US troops to drive over them. Lots of our personnel lost legs that way. Revodude's contraption would fly inside a drone, detect the IEDs with fancy physics. Then it emits some electromagnetic pulse to set off the trigger. Bomb blows up with no one around. Threat neutralized.