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Watch: Special Operations community eyes this ‘off-road aircraft’

“[Military officials have] actually come to Shreveport multiple times and helped us think through the design,” Mr. Hamel told Fox News Thursday. “We redesigned this on probably 80 percent of their feedback. Whether we got the contracts or not, look, it’s a very patriotic place for us to play. Look, the military, if we can save American soldiers’ lives, they’ve got all of our resources behind it.”
The 3-year-old company told Business Insider Tuesday that he has a “verbal commitment” from the U.S. special operations forces community.
“The shocks [are what] won this particular group over,” SkyRunner consultant Mike Mitchell told the website. “Going off of a loading dock four to five feet tall … with such a soft landing was a big plus in their eyes.”
The company said its vehicle would likely be used for surveillance or recovery missions, but would not give specifics on its commitment from the U.S. military.

Watch: American Marine trains Peshmerga in egress drills

It’s important to practice getting out of sticky situations. The following is a video of myself and my colleague demonstrating to a small group of Peshmerga soldiers how to break contact with an enemy force utilizing fire and maneuver. While we are doing this as a two man element it can easily be expanded into […]

Special operations getting smart technology for better teamwork and higher precision

Special Operations Forces (SOF), such as the Navy SEALs and Delta Force, may soon get a new type of technology that gives them additional eyes on the ground, make airstrikes more accurate, and help them better discern enemy fighters from civilians.

Using this new technology, troops will be able to livestream video back to command, see through each-other’s eyes, track targets, and call in air strikes—using just their smartphones.

The new technology could roll out soon. The company that develops it, CrowdOptic, received a rapid prototyping request from SOFWERX, which is a partnership between Doolittle Institute and U.S. Special Operations Command. Under the request, which CrowdOptic received on Sept. 8, they are expected to have a working prototype available by Sept. 30.

According to CrowdOptic CEO Jon Fisher, the technology works on just about any device with a sensor, from smart glasses to drones, but they’ll be starting with smartphones since troops with SOF use personal phones as their main communication devices while on the field.

“It’s the phones first because that’s what’s everywhere for the military,” Fisher said.

The technology works by linking data between multiple devices and finding common information between them. It can also detect the direction a device is facing, and Fisher noted “with that type of content you can do some incredible things.” This opens many doors for new technology that Fisher said could benefit anyone from warfighters to firefighters, and in industries from police work to entertainment.

The technology has been framed before as a tool that lets you “see through walls.” This is partially true, since by using smart glasses and syncing them with cameras fixated in various locations, a wearer can look in the directions of different cameras to see what they see. The CrowdOptic technology is being used this way by San Francisco Zoo’s wolf exhibit.

Since the technology can sync multiple devices and find common information, it can also be used to interconnect what various people are looking at through smart glasses. The Denver Broncos are using CrowdOptic technology, for example, to detect where fans are looking on the field, and to use this data to find the best camera angles of the action.

Watch: A-10 Warthog gun runs in Afghanistan

Four hours into a nasty firefight with the Taliban near Jaghato, Wardk, A-10 Warthogs finally arrive on station and promptly put an end to the battle with a few well-paced and devastating gun runs.