US Soldiers Use Video Game Skills to Master Remote Guns (CROWS)

by The Yellow Kid | March 21, 2006 at 06:37 pm

1388 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Think you're good at doom? Uncle Sam might try and recruit you! @ $260K a pop these bad boys mount on the top of a Hummer (or other vehicle) and are controlled from inside the vehicle, operated with cameras and a joystick... a hell of a lot safer for troops then sticking out like a sore thumb from the top of the vehicle themselves... not to mention more accurate with laser range finders, etc.

Strategy Page columnist James Dunnigan says that CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapons Systems) -- which are big guns manned remotely by someone inside an armored vehicle with a joystick and live cam -- have proved highly successful in Iraq because the soldiers operating them grew up playing (presumably first-person shooter) VIDEO GAMES. Experienced gamers have no difficulty gaining total situational awareness and whipping around the video camera on the guns, spotting hints of trouble and blasting anything that moves. CROWS is one of several "weapons for the Nintendo generation," according to the Dallas Morning News. The military is even using the Pentagon's game, "America's Army," to train CROWS gunners.