Okay, Here it is, this news is old news. Over a year old. Reported in the July issue (issue 150) of Revue Aerospatiale, a french aerospace periodical.
In the Defense Section, I quote:
The best way to dissuade snipers is to deprive them of their impunity by ensuring they know that their exact location has been pinpointed. CILAS demonstrated this at Eurosatory with its directed-optics laser detector - the first production unit intended ultimately for delivery to the French army. This ground-breaking technology can be expected to bring other developments in its wake.
SNIPER ALLEY:
Many civilians in addition to military personel have fallen victim to sharp-shooters firing from windows in buildings. These snipers are difficult to detect, which enables they to do their 'dirty work' with impunity.
Quietly, free from media hype, things have suddenly changed since a prototype of the SLD400 was recieved by the French armed forces (who had representatives at the exhibit). Behind this mundane designation (see issue 141) lurks a device capable of detecting, locating and identifying the optics with which snipers are equipped. Designed and produced by CILAS, a joint subsidiary of the Aerospatiale group and the French atomic energy commision (CEA), the SLD400 consists of two component parts: an optical head (a diode laser with video or thermal camera) weighing less than 7kg, and a monitoring unit. The SLD400 can be installed remotely to safeguard serving personel if the laser head were to be detected. In effect, teh laser acts like a cat's-eye, the laser beam being reflected by the targets optics. THe image furnished on the monitor slaved to the laser gives warning that the optics have been detected inside an area designated by a small window, after which the system allows the echo to be tracked until it can be dealt with.
French soldiers will benefit from the SLD400, and snipers will realize that they have been detected. Having lost their invulnerablity, their only choice will be to turn away their optics -hence ceae firing - or get shot themselves. At this point,the level of danger will diminish: and since pictures can be recorded, peacekeeping forces will be able to produce tangible proof of a sniper's presence, if not actually identify him.
------end quoted text------------
The article goes on and on about detecting binoculars, military optics at long range, how this can be used to counter an infared sheilded opticaly aimed weapon system, blah blah blah.
Then it further outlines sister technologies such as laser detectors for defense against laser rangefinders and others, and also neato handheld emergency target designators.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
and on and on.
Now, if anyone is so gullible to think that this technology is strictly defensive, well, I saw a CNN report about Kosovo where an iron sighted bolt action was described as a lethal assasins tool, the sniper rifle. We have all heard rumors that the GCA in its original text had provision for control of optical sights.
It is plain that the government fears the rifleman. This is laid out in plain language by their clingling to the Charles Whitman incident and lone shooter story in the death of JFK. No doubt JFK would be king today if it weren't for the evils of rifle scopes, right?
If the French have it, we have either it or a system much more advanced.
How many FLIR equipped aircraft does the BATF currently have?
How many sniper rifles does the BATF currently have?
How many sniper rifles does the FBI currently have?
In the last 25 years, the supposedly most crime ridden time in our nations history, (eh?) how many crimes have been commited by "long range" rifles? How many crimes requiring optically sighted rifles have been commited?
In the Defense Section, I quote:
The best way to dissuade snipers is to deprive them of their impunity by ensuring they know that their exact location has been pinpointed. CILAS demonstrated this at Eurosatory with its directed-optics laser detector - the first production unit intended ultimately for delivery to the French army. This ground-breaking technology can be expected to bring other developments in its wake.
SNIPER ALLEY:
Many civilians in addition to military personel have fallen victim to sharp-shooters firing from windows in buildings. These snipers are difficult to detect, which enables they to do their 'dirty work' with impunity.
Quietly, free from media hype, things have suddenly changed since a prototype of the SLD400 was recieved by the French armed forces (who had representatives at the exhibit). Behind this mundane designation (see issue 141) lurks a device capable of detecting, locating and identifying the optics with which snipers are equipped. Designed and produced by CILAS, a joint subsidiary of the Aerospatiale group and the French atomic energy commision (CEA), the SLD400 consists of two component parts: an optical head (a diode laser with video or thermal camera) weighing less than 7kg, and a monitoring unit. The SLD400 can be installed remotely to safeguard serving personel if the laser head were to be detected. In effect, teh laser acts like a cat's-eye, the laser beam being reflected by the targets optics. THe image furnished on the monitor slaved to the laser gives warning that the optics have been detected inside an area designated by a small window, after which the system allows the echo to be tracked until it can be dealt with.
French soldiers will benefit from the SLD400, and snipers will realize that they have been detected. Having lost their invulnerablity, their only choice will be to turn away their optics -hence ceae firing - or get shot themselves. At this point,the level of danger will diminish: and since pictures can be recorded, peacekeeping forces will be able to produce tangible proof of a sniper's presence, if not actually identify him.
------end quoted text------------
The article goes on and on about detecting binoculars, military optics at long range, how this can be used to counter an infared sheilded opticaly aimed weapon system, blah blah blah.
Then it further outlines sister technologies such as laser detectors for defense against laser rangefinders and others, and also neato handheld emergency target designators.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
and on and on.
Now, if anyone is so gullible to think that this technology is strictly defensive, well, I saw a CNN report about Kosovo where an iron sighted bolt action was described as a lethal assasins tool, the sniper rifle. We have all heard rumors that the GCA in its original text had provision for control of optical sights.
It is plain that the government fears the rifleman. This is laid out in plain language by their clingling to the Charles Whitman incident and lone shooter story in the death of JFK. No doubt JFK would be king today if it weren't for the evils of rifle scopes, right?
If the French have it, we have either it or a system much more advanced.
How many FLIR equipped aircraft does the BATF currently have?
How many sniper rifles does the BATF currently have?
How many sniper rifles does the FBI currently have?
In the last 25 years, the supposedly most crime ridden time in our nations history, (eh?) how many crimes have been commited by "long range" rifles? How many crimes requiring optically sighted rifles have been commited?