The Pentagon has recently unveiled its newest base defense, the Combat Outpost Surveillance and Force Protection System, more commonly known as the "Kraken."
Much like the mythological creature from which the piece of machinery gained its nickname, the Kraken is terrifyingly awesome, equipped with all the latest gadgets to protect American bases, according to AOL Defense:
Kraken has many eyes, including an Elta Ground Master vehicle-tracking radar, an additional STS-1400 radar, plus AN/PRS-9 Unattended Ground Sensors built by L3 and five sonic sensors that can detect incoming fire and triangulate the shooter's location. The system has 11 daylight, infrared and thermal cameras, two of them mounted on a 30-foot mast alongside a laser rangefinder. The rest of the cameras, wired into the central unit, can be positioned around the base perimeter. The main sensors have an approximately 15-mile range.
The base defender can also be equipped with remote controlled machine guns and can relay video to group troops via drones flying above.
The Kraken is not autonomous (yet..) and is controlled by a small unit of soldiers using multiple laptops who can command the machine to track specific potential enemy targets and forget about known friendly forces.
AOL Defense's David Axe believes that all of this technology has made the small outpost in Afghanistan "one of the best-defended U.S. bases ... well, ever."