An article that came out on Fox News has a picture of an odd SVD contraption captured by the Peshmerga in action against Daesh in northern Syria. The article had this to say-

In a dusty outpost near the Kurdish-held northern city of Kirkuk, a Peshmerga commander recently displayed two weapons that show his enemy’s increasing adaptability on the battlefield. One was a scoped sniper rifle, customized and mounted on a welded steel platform and built to track targets by computer and fire by remote control…

Kerkuki revealed the captured weaponry along with bullet riddled black flags and photographs of other ISIS munitions captured during a successful Peshmerga operation against ISIS just weeks ago. The gun was operated attached to a computer by four long cables that controlled barrel elevation, gun rotation, the trigger and the camera. An operator could place the weapon at an elevated vantage point, and then hide out of sight while controlling the weapon via the computer screen like a lethal video game.

Kerkuki said it was not clear who built the weapon or where it came from. Controls and labels on the wires were written in English, but the deadly innovation of the device led some to suspect it was built by Chechen fighters, who have poured in to join ISIS.

Whether the thing actually works is a whole other deal. Also, the amount of technology that goes into remote controlled systems is sometimes staggering in size. As an example with the robot driven M249 SAW contraption or the remote control turret mounts in use with MRAPs in Afghanistan. Sure this thing might be able to change elevation, windage, and fire off a round, but with the precision needed to hit anything beyond 50-100 meters?

It seems to change elevation by the forward pivot point, while windage is adjustable by the rear most pivot point that seems to work on hydraulics. Where the sighting system or camera is, I have no idea, there’s just the scope.