Of all the things I never thought I would write in the same sentence, “Remote Control” and “Sturmgewehr 44” must be at the top of the list. The above photo shows a Syrian rebel controlling a Sturmgewehr 44 with a wired joystick. A cheap CMOS video camera with a Component video output is mounted behind the scope (at the correct distance to account for eye relief) and is wired into a LCD screen.

Excluding the batteries and motors, the electronics could be purchased for less than $200 on ebay. They are the same type of components used by amateur drone hobbyists to remotely fly aircraft at extreme distances, although they use wireless transmitters and receivers rather than wired connections. In this application wired communications probably give the operator longer range through thick concrete walls than a cheap 2.4ghz/5.8ghz video system would (and it cannot be jammed, or worse, hacked into).

Last year Syrian rebels claimed to have captured a weapons cache containing 5,000 Sturmgewehr 44 rifles.

Thanks to Patrick for the tip.