Sentry gun

A sentry gun is a gun that is automatically aimed and fired at targets that are detected by sensors. The earliest functioning military sentry guns were the close-in weapon systems point-defense weapons for detecting and destroying short range incoming missiles and enemy aircraft first used exclusively on naval assets, and now also as land-based defences.

Fictional sentry guns have appeared in science fiction since the 1940s. Video games have provided a fertile ground for fictional visions of sentry guns. Fictional examples of automatic sentry guns have appeared since the 1980s, in films such as Aliens (1986) and the television series Æon Flux (early 1990s).

Military use

Samsung SGR-A1

The Samsung SGR-A1 is a South Korean military robot sentry designed to replace human counterparts in the demilitarized zone at the South and North Korea border. It is a stationary system made by Samsung defense subsidiary Samsung Techwin.

Sentry Tech

In 2007, the Israeli military deployed the Sentry Tech system along the Gaza border fence with pillboxes placed at intervals of some hundreds of meters. The 4-million USD system is supposed to be completed by the end of the summer. Initial deployment plans call for mounting a .50-caliber M2 Browning automated machine gun in each pillbox. Connected via fiber optics to a remote operator station and a command-and-control center, each machine gun-mounted station serves as a type of robotic sniper, capable of enforcing a nearly 1,500-meter-deep no-go zone. The gun is based on the Samson Remote Controlled Weapon Station. Dozens of individuals have been shot with the Sentry Tech system. The first reported killing of an individual appears to have taken place during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008.