Multikill Vehicle Hover Test

It's "recognizing and tracking a simulated target," which I think means we're all doomed. Here's what it is.

Missile defense multiple kill vehicle hover test [Youtube via jwz]

[#1 posted by Marcel , December 10, 2008 4:50 AM]

Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's, it's.....flying pork!

At least there's one american industry not in need of a bailout.

[#2 posted by monstrinho_do_biscoito , December 10, 2008 5:50 AM]

neato. now where can i get a pocket sized one of those to replace the useless mini RC helicopter i have

[#3 posted by BastardNamban , December 10, 2008 6:04 AM]

Just what is this? Is it shooting, or are those blasts just to orient it?

Should I be afraid of this, or can I walk up and hit it with a bat? Cause it looks like it'd fly nice and far, dent real nice...

[#4 posted by dan_coop , December 10, 2008 6:15 AM]

Looks like it's one of those flying buzzsaws (Manhacks)off Half Life 2

[#5 posted by PaulR , December 10, 2008 6:43 AM]

Yeah, what's the carrying capacity? Other than itself?

[#6 posted by Jake0748 , December 10, 2008 7:33 AM]

I saw a very similar video about 10 years ago. The vehicle was being developed as a part of Ronnie Raygun'z Star Wars program. Although this one looks a lot more stable in flight. Good to see the gummint still working on new ways to kill people.

[#7 posted by Oren Beck , December 10, 2008 7:42 AM]

A bit smaller and Luke can learn to feel the force guide him in defense from it..

[#8 posted by TJ S , December 10, 2008 8:14 AM]

I think this one's actually meant to shoot down incoming missles, rather than kill people.

Don't worry though, I'm sure we're still working on new ways to kill people.

[#9 posted by dculberson , December 10, 2008 8:15 AM]

BastardNamban, I believe all those flames are it stabilizing itself. (and not shooting.)

[#10 posted by lava , December 10, 2008 8:36 AM]

reminds me of those tank-killing Frisbees ..

[#11 posted by Anonymous , December 10, 2008 9:36 AM]

Didn't I see this on =The Last Starfighter=?

[#12 posted by arkizzle , December 10, 2008 9:38 AM]

That is so violent and aggressive, with the noise and flames, and the occasional little brown cloud of something..

So cyberpunk, so nasty. I love it.
__

One question though: how does it take so long to drop to the floor after the booster stops spitting? My brain is telling me it's either really huge, or really light or the film is high-speed (none of which are probably true).

It looks like it just floats down after the test..

[#13 posted by Gainclone , December 10, 2008 9:40 AM]

This thing is INCREDIBLE! It's so stable! Imagine seeing this just coming at you down a deserted city street. Just slowly gliding sideways, roaring and popping violently as it approaches. It's like a noisy, obvious version of that assassin thing from Dune.

[#14 posted by V , December 10, 2008 9:44 AM]

"The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."

[#15 posted by arkizzle , December 10, 2008 9:50 AM]

Gain / V

I'm glad you guys see the mental side of this, because when I saw the comments above, I couldn't believe how passé people seemed to be.

THIS IS THE CRAZY SHIT !! WITNESS !!

[#16 posted by PaulR , December 10, 2008 10:01 AM]

Gah, I actually RTFA...

The vehicle isn't meant to carry anything. And the only reason the video has it expending so much fuel is because it's here, on the Earth's surface.

Normally they're meant to put themselves in the way of a missile.

[#17 posted by Charlie , December 10, 2008 10:37 AM]

That is pretty wicked looking. Nice to know we at least got something cool for our $60 billion.

[#18 posted by zoink , December 10, 2008 2:02 PM]

Arkizzle -- IANAPhysicist, but the my understanding is that object's rate of acceleration due to gravity should be the same regardless of its mass. Different objects will have different terminal velocities, but this robotic terror would have to be insanely light to reach its terminal velocity within the 10 feet or so in the cage.

That said, I imagine it would be pretty massy object if it's supposed to stop a missile.

[#19 posted by zoink , December 10, 2008 2:05 PM]

Of course I decided to read the article *after* commenting.

Now I know that it weighs 10 pounds.

[#20 posted by LightningRose , December 10, 2008 3:16 PM]

Makes me think of Saberhagen's Berserkers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker_(Saberhagen)

[#21 posted by djangofan , December 10, 2008 3:58 PM]

I find it interesting that the thing is shooting projectiles UP into the air rather than primarily at ground targets.

[#22 posted by arkizzle , December 10, 2008 6:00 PM]

Zoink,

So does that mean the film is shot at high speed, or what? It definitely floats to the ground, unnaturally.

[#23 posted by arkizzle , December 10, 2008 6:07 PM]

Oh, and when I said "it's either really huge, or really light" I meant:

If it was huge, like tens-of-metres across, then the room would be hu-ge and the sense of scale would be thrown off, making it take a second to fall to the ground (of course this isn't true). Or, if really light (floatable) that copuld be the other explanation.

Either way (neither of which it is), the speed at which it decends and then bounces at is clearly very slow, so the film is probably be high speed - so IRL it'd be even nastier, louder and more aggressive - yay!

[#24 posted by arkizzle , December 10, 2008 6:10 PM]

Hmm.. it really doesn't look like high speed footage. Maybe the booster just has a solid tail-off..

[#25 posted by dustbuster7000 , December 11, 2008 11:36 AM]

Well its hanging in the air due to the balance between bottom booster, gravity and top (angled) stabilizers, my guess is the bottom booster provides very slight more thrust than is need to get the vehicle level and that is counter balanced by the stabilizers, they've constantly pushing against one another to maintain position and stability. So once the main booster stops, since the stabilizers don't counteract it, it's under very slight upward net thrust until gravity takes over, which gives the appearance of floating. But this is all conjecture based on the video and how *I* would control it, no idea if its true.

[#26 posted by blatantdisregard , December 11, 2008 11:56 AM]

Am I the only one who thinks this is fake? The motion of the object seems unreal; way too stable in flight. Maybe this is a CG animation demonstrating what they'd like to develop. A neat video nonetheless.

[#27 posted by wormbaby , December 11, 2008 3:31 PM]

Ok according to the press release "The full-scale prototype flew at an altitude of approximately 23 feet (7 meters) for 20 seconds" So you can judge the scale from that. It happened at "National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif" If you wanted to try and get a scale of the room Im sure the lab brags about it somewhere.

[#28 posted by wormbaby , December 11, 2008 3:42 PM]

to djangofan those are not projectiles they are vectoring jets. The "projectiles" are the pods arranged around it. The are kinetic impactor munitions. Big word for rocks. You can't test the projectiles on earth because compensating them for gravity would be imppossible. The main vehicle can be tested because the downward force of gravity is compensated for by a downward pointing rocket (which of course wont be on the spaceborne version)

[#29 posted by arkizzle , December 11, 2008 6:32 PM]

Worm, thanks for the info, 7 meters make sense when you see it slowly sink down and then bounce lazily a couple of times.

[#30 posted by Chris L , December 11, 2008 6:41 PM]

This makes the mad scientist in me cackle with delight.

If I was the shadowy leader of an industrial military complex, all I'd need is one look at that thing. "Mount a pivoting AK-47 and slap on some robot spider legs underneath. We'll take 500 of 'em"