2013-08-18 Hammer Ind. Demo Controversy

The live weapons demonstration by Hammer Industries yesterday evening has drawn a lot of attention and controversy. The multi-billion dollar U.S. defense contractor debuted a brand new aerospace drone at the Stark Expo, and many are saying that the demonstration teatered on disaster. The drones, known as MQ-28 "BullSharks" were to engage in a live-fire demonstration on the Expo grounds in Queens when one of the three remotely flown aircraft broke off from the pack. The rogue drone, carrying live ammunition, hovered just yards from the crowd after it had lost communications with it's base of operations. There were several tense moments while Hammer employees worked to correct the communications and restore control to the drone, and the Avenger Thor was witnessed keeping the drone at bay. The drone's communications were restored, and the drone returned to base without incident.
Hammer Industries founder and CEO Justin Hammer has gone on record stating that the demonstration was perfectly safe, and at no time were the spectators at the Expo in any danger. "The demonstration went according to plan," Hammer told the media after the demonstration. "It proved that the BullShark drone's programming operates exactly as designed. In case of interference or loss of control the drone goes into standby mode and will return to it's base of operations if communications aren't restored."
Other sources claim that the communications failure of "BullShark 3" was not a planned part of the demonstration, and that the appearance of Thor was merely a coincidence. Critics of Hammer's demonstration site the company's previous failures and tendency to push untested prototypes to market. The company's track record is far from spotless- the first flight of the phase one 'BullShark' drones made headlines when all three prototypes crashed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in 2011. Since then Hammer Industries has also found failure in a public demo of their HX-173 micromissile, which failed to properly detonate.
Despite the potential issues with the Expo demo, sources in the Senate Armed Services Committee report that they're willing to back the drone design, and that it has "proved it's potential despite the flaws."
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