Abstract

The disclosure includes a surveillance and weapon system comprising a tubular, generally annularly symmetrical multiple fire weapon having optical scope means coaxially arranged in the throat thereof. Also disclosed is a remote control embodiment particularly suitable as an anti-hijacking system for the protection of commercial aircraft, but equally useful in the protection of other vehicles such as ships, trains or the like, and for the protection of various places that are frequently subject to criminal attack such as banks, prisons, courtrooms, stores, offices, and the like. Disclosed aspects of the remote control embodiment include mounting of the weapon-optics combination on a mobile unit for linear travel and pan and tilt movements for complete mobility thereof; having the mobile unit completely hidden from the protected region behind a one-way vision screen, thereby enabling the mobile unit to be remotely driven so as to follow a hijacker or other subject and for placement in advantageous positions relative to the subject, as for example to avoid an intervening hostage or avoid alignment with vulnerable aircraft structures, without the subject being aware of either the presence or the position of the mobile unit, thereby minimizing precipitous situations and avoiding retaliatory actions against the system, while nevertheless rendering the subject selectively vulnerable to offensive action by the system, including sudden incapacitation by firing directly through the one-way screen which thus functions as a destructible, replaceable part of the system. Remote surveillance and control take place at a remote station, as for example in the cockpit compartment of an aircraft, having a video surveillance screen which exhibits an image at all times directly aligned with the weapon axis and which is tilt-compensated, whereby parallax, alignment problems and disorientation of the operator are avoided, the remote station including a manual control unit drivingly coupled to the remote unit and to the weapon-scope combination thereon to produce linear travel, pan and tilt movements of the weapon-optics combination corresponding to similar movements of the manual control unit. The unique coaxial weapon-scope optics arrangement disclosed, including optics forms permitting separation and separate movement of the scope optics from the video image sensor, permit the mobile unit to have the particularly low silhouette required for concealment thereof in the ceiling area of a commercial aircraft behind the one-way screen. Also disclosed is a weapon inhibit system programmable to inhibit weapon operation when the weapon is directed toward vulnerable aircraft parts, concentrations of persons, or the like.