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smart gun could be the weapon of the future, and it's as Canadian as maple syrup | National Post
It looks like something out of a semi-futuristic post-apocalypse movie: A hybrid of traditional weaponry with digital scopes attached and the ability to morph from a rifle into a shotgun into a grenade launcher.
Except it’s the next generation of armed warfare, improved with lessons from Afghanistan and other recent incursions — and it’s as Canadian as maple syrup.
It’s still a prototype, so it’s a long way from being in the field, but the new “smart gun” being developed with Colt Canada could one day replace the C7, the standard military weapon that’s almost identical to the M16 everyone knows from the movies.
Since 2008, the Department of National Defence, through Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), has loaded $7.3 million into the firearm.
“This exploratory work has allowed DRDC to investigate innovative technologies and other issues, such as ergonomics. Such work will allow the military to identify the most desired future weapon features,” a spokesperson in National Defence Minister Jason Kenney’s office said.
The final product will be lighter than the C7 and include features that will allow for communications between the weapon and a command base. A second iteration is expected to include features to help soldiers identify military targets from civilians. Digital scopes could calculate the wind and other factors to improve accuracy.
“In the medium term, this weapon concept represents a lethal, flexible general-purpose platform,” said Lt-Col Serge Lapointe of the Canadian Army said in a DRDC release. “It will be able to operate in all theatres of operations in the most complex terrain including urban areas, mountains, jungles, deserts and the Arctic.”
The “smart gun” will put more tools in soldiers’ hands, but it’s unlikely computers will ever replace humans hands on the trigger. And unlike the more common use of “smart gun,” which commonly means a weapon with digital tools that would prevent the wrong person from firing it, this rifle-cum-grenade launcher is more about giving soldiers more reliable information and helping to make decisions about who and what to attack.
As great as a self-aiming gun might sound – imagine being able to guarantee you won’t hit a school beside a target with a grenade? – it’s not as simple as pointing and letting the robots take over.
“We have to be very cautious about allowing computers to make decisions about what the target is…. It can aid the soldiers, but we have to be aware that computers can make mistakes and you don’t want to be shooting the wrong person,” said Walter Dorn, a professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces College and the Royal Military College of Canada.
It looks like something out of a semi-futuristic post-apocalypse movie: A hybrid of traditional weaponry with digital scopes attached and the ability to morph from a rifle into a shotgun into a grenade launcher.
Except it’s the next generation of armed warfare, improved with lessons from Afghanistan and other recent incursions — and it’s as Canadian as maple syrup.
It’s still a prototype, so it’s a long way from being in the field, but the new “smart gun” being developed with Colt Canada could one day replace the C7, the standard military weapon that’s almost identical to the M16 everyone knows from the movies.
Since 2008, the Department of National Defence, through Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), has loaded $7.3 million into the firearm.
“This exploratory work has allowed DRDC to investigate innovative technologies and other issues, such as ergonomics. Such work will allow the military to identify the most desired future weapon features,” a spokesperson in National Defence Minister Jason Kenney’s office said.
The final product will be lighter than the C7 and include features that will allow for communications between the weapon and a command base. A second iteration is expected to include features to help soldiers identify military targets from civilians. Digital scopes could calculate the wind and other factors to improve accuracy.
“In the medium term, this weapon concept represents a lethal, flexible general-purpose platform,” said Lt-Col Serge Lapointe of the Canadian Army said in a DRDC release. “It will be able to operate in all theatres of operations in the most complex terrain including urban areas, mountains, jungles, deserts and the Arctic.”
The “smart gun” will put more tools in soldiers’ hands, but it’s unlikely computers will ever replace humans hands on the trigger. And unlike the more common use of “smart gun,” which commonly means a weapon with digital tools that would prevent the wrong person from firing it, this rifle-cum-grenade launcher is more about giving soldiers more reliable information and helping to make decisions about who and what to attack.
As great as a self-aiming gun might sound – imagine being able to guarantee you won’t hit a school beside a target with a grenade? – it’s not as simple as pointing and letting the robots take over.
“We have to be very cautious about allowing computers to make decisions about what the target is…. It can aid the soldiers, but we have to be aware that computers can make mistakes and you don’t want to be shooting the wrong person,” said Walter Dorn, a professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces College and the Royal Military College of Canada.
