Reaping the benefits of vastly improved imaging and analysis software, the Defense Department has put together a whopper of a situational awareness system. It’s mounted on a robotic helicopter, the Hummingbird, which can hover at high altitudes for a long period of time, providing coverage for an entire operation. The ARGUS-IS system itself is four arrays of 92 five-megapixel sensors, which can track up to 65 individual events at a time, such as enemy movements, friendly locations, and anything else you can imagine.

The resolution is excellent, of course, and at a high altitude (15,000 feet) it has a resolution of about 1px/6in, which is about what you when you’re zoomed all the way in on Google Maps or what have you. It updates at 15FPS, which is way more than enough to accurately nail someone with a space laser.

[via Wired]