# Science-Fiction Automatic/Robotic Sentry Guns...any basis in reality? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-automatic-robotic-sentry-guns-any-basis-in-reality/115366 "2002-06-22T00:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-automatic-robotic-sentry-guns-any-basis-in-reality/115366/21 "2002-06-24T16:58:18Z")
I don’t believe the Russians ever actually put those guns into the Wall. they did plan on doing it, that much is certain. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-automatic-robotic-sentry-guns-any-basis-in-reality/115366/22 "2002-06-24T19:10:14Z")
“I don’t believe the Russians ever actually put those guns into the Wall. they did plan on doing it, that much is certain.” The following is a fairly-sure IIRC. I have an 1970s encyclopedia at home with clear pictures, diagram, and description of the system. I read the encyclopedia yesterday but don’t have it in front of me now. The guns WERE installed on the Berlin Wall. However, the system were not robotic or automated guns as much as a more refined or pre-planned version of the “spring guns” referred to by Mangetout. Tripwires running along the fence attached to the triggers of guns also fastened to the fence. IIRC, there were guns at head, chest and groin heights, more or less, so that if you evaded one gun, another was bound to get you. Some of the guns were pointed at an angle, so you couldn’t always predict which way the shrapnel\* was going to go from the location of the wire. \*The tripwire guns weren’t merely ordinary person-carried guns fastened to a fence and hooked to a tripwire. In short, they didn’t fire relatively “clean”-wounding bullets. They were specially made for the purpose of discouraging people from trying to climb the Wall and stopping those who did try. The “business end” of the devices was a cone of metal, scored like a “pineapple” grenade. Tripping the wire caused an explosive charge in the device behind the cone to fire, blasting apart the cone and propelling the fragments forward. ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-automatic-robotic-sentry-guns-any-basis-in-reality/115366/23 "2002-06-25T14:21:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > \*\*The B-52’s tailgun was fired remotely by a gunner (Navigator, IIRC), it just didn’t have a warm body _in the mount_. Yes, it used radar sights. \*\* IIRC, the tailgun was manned by an enlisted crewmember, whose position was eliminated when the last of that particular model (was it the B-52D?) was phased out. I could be wrong. I’ll try to find a cite. As for the discussion about the Phalanx/Aegis, I think **SenorBeef** mis-read **GeorgeAECF** ’s statement. He gave a pretty good description of the Aegis system, which the Phalanx gun is a part of. The second sentence doesn’t specify what “it” is very well, and it took me a couple of reads to follow the train of thought, but George is describing Aegis, not just the Phalanx. ---
**Author:** ![G.Cornelius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@G.Cornelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Cornelius)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-automatic-robotic-sentry-guns-any-basis-in-reality/115366/24 "2002-06-25T14:47:31Z")
I remember reading about a system some years ago. It was designed to detect incomming mortar rounds by means of a radar. It gave a waring of the attack, located the source and if the source was outside of a friendly area, it was able to fire a mortar of its own at the source. It was all some time ago, I don’t know if the system actually exists, but it all seemed very reasonable at the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-automatic-robotic-sentry-guns-any-basis-in-reality/115366.md?page=1)