Fortune magazine and Defense review report that there's a formidable new weapon on the horizon, an Autocopter Gunship that's a mini helicopter drone with two of those badass AA-12 12-gauge recoiless automatic shotguns strapped on.

The AutoCopter robotic mini-helicopter has two flight modes: semi-autonomous and fully autonomous. In semi-autonomous, the operator (RC pilot) is "in control" of the aircraft. We put "in control" in quotes because the real control is achieved by the AutoCopter's computer, which interperets the operators commands and translates them into flight surface movement via servo motor activation, similar to a modern fighter jet's fly-by-wire system. Basically, the operator tells the AutoCopter what he/she wants it to do, and the AutoCopter's computer figures out exactly how to make that happen.

For the fully-autonomous flight mode, the AutoCopter utilizes a GPS system, where the operator uploads a flight plan to the AutoCopter via a laptop computer, using GPS waypoints. In this mode, the operator "starts the AutoCopter, engages the Flight Control System, commands the AutoCopter to take off and turns all flight operations over to the FCS." The operator can regain manual control of the AutoCopter at any time by going back to the semi-autonomous mode. If the AutoCopter flies out of RC range, it will turn around and come back within range. If it runs out of gas (it's gasoline-powered), a parachute will automatically deploy and guide the AutoCopter back to the ground slowly and safely