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Removed probable hoax paragraph about Quintessential Gun[edit]
Hi, there used to be a paragraph about a sentry gun designed by 2 Boston University students that shot plastic BBs. The paragraph, which was unsourced, claimed that one of the students then took the gun to US Mechatronics to have it made into a military, security, and recreational version. Yes, a "recreational" version. That has "HOAX" written all over it. This may have come from "THE ONION" or a parody newspaper. Anyway, I looked up US Mechatronics, and let's just say that they don't make sentry guns for the US military. Their products section lists "RoboCut is an integrated abrasive waterjet and diamond saw"; RoboEdge, which is "specialized profiling software that makes putting a bullnose or another profile on a counter top", and LiveCut, a " video alignment tool that is integrated into RoboCut as well as RoboEdge. It allows real-time alignment of cut paths on the material that will be cut using a video camera on the RoboJet." That's right, they make stone-cutting robotics tools for cutting diamonds.Nazamo (talk) 15:57, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, i'm new here, just so you know. The parts about fictional guns on this article seemed to be a mess, so i tried cleaning it up a little. Just asking how much detail an article about fictional weaponry needs; some of these seem to have lots of info based on a movie.. I was also thinking about putting all that into a short list. --Combine 108 (talk) 02:33, 24 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I am new to this article, but when I first saw the fiction section a few weeks ago, I wanted to do the same thing or more. Imagine if the article on Walther PPK listed every time it appeared in a novel or video game! --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 11:40, 24 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
List only exceptionally notable circumstances, or else we'd see the sort of damage to articles aspergers-suffers inflict whenever they feel like noting every single instance some anime nobody has ever heard of referencing something. --124.189.50.148 (talk) 06:47, 5 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I rewrote the Modern Warfare 2 section, reworking to the bare necessities of what is relevant for this article, and replaced the Team Fortress 2 or whatever reference with the earlier (and arguably more relevant in terms of pop-culture history) sentry gun scene from Aliens. --124.189.50.148 (talk) 07:04, 5 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I ask the person who keeps adding in the Team Fortress 2 edit: Let it go. Your edit is contentless, amounting to "It exists in this game". Who cares if it does? --124.189.50.148 (talk) 03:50, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
At any rate, it seems to this lay reader that "installation" guns are permanent and "man-portable" guns can be picked up and transported. If that's the case, I must point out that sentry guns in Team Fortress 2 cannot be relocated once they have been installed.74.185.249.234 (talk) 02:50, 9 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Deleted useless info of how to make Tf2 sentrys.[edit]
"The earliest functioning sentry gun was the Phalanx"[edit]
"The earliest functioning sentry gun was the Phalanx". That's original research, and it's wrong. Automatic air defense fire control dates back to WWII. The M9 Gun Director [1], developed at Bell Labs, coupled to the SCR-545 radar [2], deployed in 1943-1944, was the first workable anti-aircraft gun system to feature automatic aiming.
It played a big part in the Battle of Britain and the battle against V-1 "buzz bombs". Since then, most successful antiaircraft artillery has had automatic aiming. The Phalanx is unusual in that it's an anti-missile weapon, and can sometimes take out incoming shells. --John Nagle (talk) 21:25, 12 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
While I see your point, I believe that the Phalanx is the first fully automatic antiaircraft gun; it identifies, targets, and engages targets entirely without human intervention at any point. Still, it would be good to get some sources. (Whether or not we even *need* this article is an entirely different matter; I'm not fully convinced that sentry guns are all that notable yet.) rdfox 76 (talk) 02:58, 13 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think they're notable yet either. The article started out listing fictional "sentry guns". That was trimmed back, and now mostly the real-world devices remain. But there aren't many of those yet. Searching for "autonomous armed robots" turns up many entries, and there's serious work going on. There's more military interest in mobile systems than in fixed ones. Fixed defenses went out with the Maginot Line. Even the Samsung automated gun was never deployed in quantity, if at all. --John Nagle (talk) 03:50, 13 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Phalanx was not the first automated CIWS, given the fully automatic AK-630 Russian system was deployed at least 4 years earlier. -- 03:50, 13 April 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.225.245.231 (talk)
Does anyone mind if I revert back to this earlier version? It would be a much better starting point to revamping this article to be more about the fictional uses, as expressed by consensus in the AfD. SilverserenC19:02, 25 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Based on the AfD discussion, I would say to revert, then purge the "Military use" section, and add a see also entry for Close-in weapon system. Several of the external links should also be removed from that version as there are dead links and commercial spam. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 19:38, 25 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've reverted it back. I decided that it would be okay to keep a little of a "Military Use" section, just for readers wanting to know about that, so I kept the info about the Phalanx, but I got rid of the info on the other guns. And I added in the CIWAs wikilink to the "See Also" section. SilverserenC19:48, 25 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I am by no means a military expert, but I have never heard the use of the term "sentry gun" outside of computer games. The Phalanx gun, and similiar systems, are "CIWS" or "Close in Weapons Systems", or "Point Defence Systems". I have never heard them called "Sentry guns". If the article is primarily about computer and video games, mentioning some similar real world systems might be justified, but the way it is written now implies that the term "Sentry Gun" is standard, and I don't believe that it is. JackStonePGD (talk) 20:40, 18 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
This automated machine gun from Belarius [3] is called a "sentry gun" in English translation, but that may be an artifact of a YouTube user. "Auto-turret" is used for some military systems.[4] There are a reasonable number of real-world prototypes, but they haven't been deployed much. John Nagle (talk) 03:23, 19 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The Super Aegis seems more or less irrelevant to the topic of stationary military LAWS. The Samsung project has far more potential to be helpful given that it is confirmed to have been deployed in the DMZ and appears to be in the process of being improved and refined, thus being a more advanced example. The Israeli project is relevant mainly because it's still deployed and effective in force. I think it's in decent shape after my updates, but I'm concerned there may be too much depth.
In all honesty, this page seems like it would be better rolled into the LAWS page or relevant more specific page. Perhaps "Sentry guns in fiction" should be it's own page and the military aspect should be shuffled into larger pages?
