CROWS comes in several different configurations, based on weapon mounted and armor installed (light, at 163 pounds, standard, at 298 pounds and CROWS II, at 379 pounds.) The heaviest version is usually used in MRAP (armored trucks) and has a better user interface, a thermal imager and sniper detection system. By the end of 2006, there were about a thousand CROWS in service. There are now over 6,000. Many of the enemy fighters have seen Western or Japanese films featuring killer robots, and often think that's what they are facing. The fear factor is real.
We should be able to exploit that fear factor. It strikes me that we could make cheap, coffee can-sized modules with fake camera lenses and a motor and battery to randomly rotate back and forth as if scanning, and bolt them to the decks of our military vehicles. Low tech and gullible enemies watching these vehicles roll by might be a little bit more intimidated and back off from an attack out of worry that they've been spotted.
UPDATE: More on CROWS. And in an effort to contribute to my canned fear device, I bestow my own acronym: Canned Reminder Of Whup Ass (CROWA)
