If it were DARPA I could actually totally see it, that kind of blue-sky bullshit is exactly their thing. However, post-9/11 media has moved from criticising the US government and military to bagging on PMCs. The thing about PMCs is that they're budget conscious, they don't really have R&D departments so whilst I can see them ordering custom weapons or radio units I just can't see Blackwater funding a project with that kind of huge cost for a dubious payoff. Those dinosaurs are expensive, hideously so for something you're putting in harms way. They're difficult to handle, nearly impossible to control and almost impossible to stop if they go rogue. Hell, they're a fucking PR nightmare.Zontar said:To be fair, that's the mindset behind a lot of the RnD for the US military, though usually there are scientific and economic benefits to that line of thinking in the long run (if you're using a computer or television build after 2008, there's something in the machine which was developed or improved upon specifically because of Iraq and Afghanistan, for example).
I have to admit one of the first things I commented on to my girlfriend in the cinema was the fact that they had an actual NOC this time rather than a single skeezy-ass sysadmin with no holiday cover.