In the defensive war against Russia, Ukraine uses the Steam Deck handheld PC to remotely control the “Sabre” weapon system. This is reported by Dexerto, among others. From a safe distance of up to 500 m, the soldiers can use the remote-controlled carriage to fire machine guns and fight enemies. The MG turret Saber emerged from a crowdfunding initiative.
Remote-controlled enemy combat
The Saber system can be equipped with weapons of different calibers. In addition to light and heavy machine guns, these include anti-tank missiles and the Russian AK-47 assault rifle. The system is designed in such a way that the operator can see the optics of the weapon on his steam deck and align the MG in height and sideways using an electric motor. Target observation is also possible. The weapon is fired via a magnetic trigger. Saber also has hit analysis. The Steam Deck runs on Linux. It should also be possible to use Windows. photos of it circulate on Twitter.
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In the video you can see a prototype of Saber, which is controlled with a joystick.
Saber was developed back in 2014 as a result of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. In order to secure the financing of the project, Ukraine ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2015. This is a popular way of financing public projects in Ukraine, such as military defense drones and hospitals. The crowdfunding raised around 12,000 US dollars, around 10,830 euros, within two years.
In the years to come, Saber evolved. The Steam Deck connection is still new and only took place in the course of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Overall, however, this type of weapon system is not new. South Korea protects its border with North Korea with automatic turrets. Israel uses a similar gun carriage in the West Bank. This “Smartshooter” system is controlled manually or via an AI.
(olb)
