518 views

4:11

Watch
- Search Videos
  
  Advanced search »
- Submit a New Video
Discuss
About
- Try clicking on the various channels to see videos posted to that channel - if you're into music you can click the Music channel to get more music sifts - go on and explore! Use the "hotness" when you have opened the channel link to get videos that have gotten a lot of votes, or use "newness" to have a look at the new sifts.
  When browsing sifts you like, have a look at the Related Posts list to see other related videos, click the tags under the video title to see more sifts tagged with the same tags or have a look at other sifts from the same user in the More Posts By list. If the sifted video is in a play list, have a look at the play list to see other interesting videos the Sift users have linked together.
  Enter the Sift Lounge to chat with online sifters about anything and everything, or read interesting posts in the Sift Talk forum.
  The Top New Videos list is always full of interesting, current videos. It is always recommended that you have a look through the Top New Videos, but also have a look at these:
  - Upcoming Unsifted Videos - active video submissions that neither are published to the front page nor archived to the submitter's personal queue
- Have you seen a really funny, surprising, scary, interesting, cute or in any other way extra good quality video?
  Post and share it here - VideoSift is the best video aggregator on the Web, where we share, discuss, promote, and interact with the best videos out there on the web. Post it here, and share it with the large community of video-interested users. And - you are guaranteed to find more very good videos here already!
  Mind you, we only share videos you discover that someone else has made; if you "self link," by posting a video you have made, have posted or have interests in, you risk the ban hammer - read the posting guidelines before posting. The sift is NOT for promoting your own videos - it is for sharing videos others have made.
  Submit a Video Now »
Login

This is where good AH-1 Cobras go when they retire...

submitted by SFOGuy

9 years 2 weeks ago

So, everyone knows about the transfer of militarized equipment to local agencies---thus, we end up with local police departments that have flak vests, assault rifles, 40 mm grenade launchers, etc, etc, etc.

Therefore, it should be no surprise to find an AH-1 Cobra serving with the Forest Service in the Western Region of the United States, right?

I mean that would let you, I dunno, minigun a bunch of rabid Cub Scouts before they overran the local 7-11.

Except, that's not what they did with it. They removed its fangs---painted it bright orange and white, added bubble side windows, and call it the "Fire Watch"...

They use it to coordinate fire bomber runs (it's fast enough, it has a spotter position, it can hover over target initial positions)---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms4RlV6RiXs

And they use it to do this too...

I imagine it would probably be pretty good at tracking lost kids too...

BTW, if the speech was muffled---what they find at the end is a root ball burning with embers...A place where a forest fire would restart if someone didn't find it and put it out...

6 Comments

Most of the technology you use in your daily life comes from weapons (tactical and strategic) development.

Nice to see a sword being forged into a ploughshare, though.

how about buying these ground crews guys a simple handheld FLIR camera

Sniper007 says...

... the HELL was it? A group of root buds? Huh?

Embers burning down the trunk into a root ball---just waiting to catch fire again...

... the HELL was it? A group of root buds? Huh?

Yes, that would be brilliant.
However, also true that in terrain that difficult and ridged, I bet there would be all sorts of line of sight issues that get resolved by having an airborne platform.

Going forward, I'd say: Drone.

how about buying these ground crews guys a simple handheld FLIR camera

Good call. Then you could land it and use the IR camera on it as a hand held unit to pinpoint the targets.
EDIT: or just land it right on the hidden target!

Yes, that would be brilliant.
However, also true that in terrain that difficult and ridged, I bet there would be all sorts of line of sight issues that get resolved by having an airborne platform.

Going forward, I'd say: Drone.

Discuss...

🗨️ Emojis & HTML

Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.