The answer is: the same company that built
this thing to the right. Well, sorta... the thing was made by a Belfast-based Bombardier subsidiary named Shorts. It "protects against aircraft and helicopter attacks." (p. 102 Bombardier: a dream with international reach, Montreal: 1992).
My first thought was that the weapon, because of its weirdness, must have something to do with the excentric Arab millionaire, Saad Gabr, who bought up a lot of property around North Hatley about 25 years ago and was involved in the arms business. Gabr promoted an invention which shot rockets off of a catapult which he intended to built in Quebec. A lot of publicity ensued -- including, I believe, a "60 Minutes" episode, because the inventor of the weapon was mysteriously murdered, some speculate by Israel's Mossad.
ReplyDeleteGabr no longer lives in Quebec and I understand that Coolopolis informs us that it was a "Montreal" company that was responsible for the weapon in the picture, but I will nevertheless go with Gabr.
It's unlikely to be a weapon (or at least not a projectile weapon) because the stand would not support any kind of recoil.
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to think it's some kind of communications device, or perhaps something that uses microwaves to track an object -- said tracking data would then be sent to another device, such as a guided missile.
I have no idea who made it.
How 'bout Oerlikon?
ReplyDeleteMr. Peabody
Given what Blork says, I'm going to then guess Canadian Marconi, from their picturesque now-vanished plant in TMR.
ReplyDeleteOMG! You did NOT just give the answer so quickly?? For the first time ever I was going to get one of these things right (granted it was just an educated guess) and you posted the answer BEFORE I could. Well that just figures. :(
ReplyDeleteThat, ladies and germs, is in fact a Short Brothers Blowpipe Surface-to-Air missile system designed for low-level air defense. Bombardier acquired Short Brothers well after the creation and production of the Blowpipe (which was largely obsolete by the late 1980s). The system here is employed by a British artilleryman and is protecting a forward operations site, such as a communications facility or observation post. As far as recoil is concerned, remember that this not traditional artillery - that is, there is no recoil. A short rocket burst pushes the missile out of the tube and up while the missile's engines warm up. The operator tracks the missile onto target via computer-assisted television guidance. Bombardier did not produce the missile system, nor build the 100 or so operated by Canada at the time.
ReplyDeleteWell, if Short sold the system and stopped before they were acquired by Bombardier then Coolopolis' question would be -- oh, be still my beating heart -- wrong, would it not?
ReplyDeleteWell if it is any consolation, the interns have locked Chimples back in his cage for coming up with this and hes back to bananas instead of his usual Butterscotch-squash-shrimp pasta plate. Ive called the European doctor who invented his superintelligent chip to complain about this but we cant get a service call on the high seas unless we had a chopper and its too windy in the Atlantic right now for that. Chimples points out that Bombardier features the item prominently among their products in their book, so they must lay some claim to it.
ReplyDeleteYes, because subsequent systems, such as Javelin and Starstreak have been built under the ownership of Bombardier and they own the design rights - but it is not really their product. The system was used successfully in the Falklands and in the Persian Gulf, and was originally conceived of as a potential defense for surfaced submarines.
ReplyDeleteWell, okay. But I must say I'm unnerved by the prospect of a chimp having access to product listings of weapons systems. Look what happened with George Bush.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Oerlikon (now Rheinmetal) out in St-Jean, they make similar stuff such as the ADATS (air defense, anti-tank) http://www.oerlikon.ca/pub/capabilities/adats.jsp
ReplyDeleteOh, I hate to bust your bubble, but I'm pretty sure that photo is of the Javalin, successor to the Blowpipe (the JLM - Javalin Launch Module sorta gives it away).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelin_surface-to-air_missile
Oh, and Blork: it's a recoiless weapon in the same manner as a bazooka, m-72, rocket shooting off a jet fighter, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Nerf darts.
ReplyDelete