Buy A $30 Million Pentagon Lightning Gun On eBay For $5,000

[jpak]

http://www.businessinsider.com/buy-this-30-million-pentagon-lightning-gun-on-ebay-for-5k-2011-8

In 2005, electronics company Ionatron (ION) finagled a $30 million contract to create a remote-controlled "lightning gun" to discharge IEDs where they sat. The project was a flop and the tens of millions of dollars was written off as one more project that failed to "reach maturity" -- all that is history.

But the amazing story of what happened to those lightning gun parts was just uncovered by Wired.

Inventor Corey Oliver was attempting to create the perfect life sized remote-controlled car to take to this years Burning Man. His quest started with finding a control system without any interference issues, so hit up eBay and bought a pair of $1,000 Omnitech Robotics NGCM1 controllers -- the kind that would normally go for tens of thousands of dollars.

When Oliver saw the buttons labeled "Enable Weapon," "Weapon On" and a red button in the center screaming "STOP!" he knew something was up. Soon the inventor realized he was dealing with Pentagon scraps.

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[Chimichurri]

1. I thought this was from The Onion. Pretty remarkable.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Yet another load of money pissed away by the military.

But let's talk about how wasteful Medicare is with their health care for those lazy seniors who refuse to work.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Remote control vehicles already exist. GPS enabled etc

Military uses them for targets.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

4. Lots of military prototypes don't work perfectly the first go around. Here's another...

A $150M prototype airship just crashed last week in SW Pennsylvania...
However, I doubt the scraps will end up on ebay.