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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightFormer Air Force General Talks Art of War In Outer Space
Space has long been considered humanity’s final frontier. But for retired Air Force General Lester Lyles, it’s just the final front. When it comes to observing the enemy, he explained recently, the farther out we are the better. He made the remark during the 10th annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate, a panel discussion which included … Continued
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Tech News
Underground Robot to Blow Up Bunkers
The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency wants a robot capable of navigating underground—drilling through soil and rock—to deliver an explosive load. A “one-time use, air-delivered, highly mobile vehicle having certain characteristics similar to an unmanned ground vehicle”. Called Robotic Underground Munition (RUM), this underground robot would first soft land, then start drilling, navigating under the … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Tiny Sensor Listens For Gunshots, Identifying The Gun and Location
This is the gear that gets our troops excited. Microflown Technologies’ tiny sensor listens for the sounds of war by measuring particles in the air. Then it reports what weapon made the sound and where that sound originated. The sensor uses a technology, developed by Microflown, called acoustic vector sensing. AVS heats two 200-nanometer wide … Continued
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io9
Military Airplane Graveyard Resembles Modern Day Nazca Lines
The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is a 2,600 acre sprawl of mummified aircraft. From the ground, the vacuum-sealed planes of “The Boneyard” may look like a scrap heap, but from space, the aircraft form a message to the sky. This Tuscon military base houses $35 billion worth of grounded airplanes, helicopters, and sundry aviation scrap. … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial Media
Israeli Raid Cancelled After Very Stupid Facebook Post
If you’re in the military, here’s a tip: don’t put upcoming missions in your Facebook status. You wouldn’t think someone would need to tell you that, but here we are. A raid on suspected militants in the West Bank was cancelled yesterday after an Israeli soldier updated his Facebook status to read “On Wednesday we … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech News
The Pentagon Wants You—Yes, You!—to Develop a Life-Saving Robot
Hey you! Be all that you can be! Help the U.S. military design an autonomous robot capable of ferrying injured troops from the front lines to safety with little or no help from a human hand: It’s no joke—direct from the Pentagon comes word that the Army wants someone out there, beyond its secretive five … Continued
By Jack Loftus -
Tech NewsSocial Media
New Pentagon Policy Lets Troops Overshare Like the Rest of Us
Yesterday the Department of Defense released a memo outlining the government’s first official policy for social media access by military personnel. Somewhat surprisingly, it gives them unrestricted access to blog, Tweet, poke and ping just like everyone else. Effectively immediately, Department of Defense personnel across the board, including civilian employees and troops alike, have full … Continued
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Tech News
Navy SEALs’ New Combat Sub Actually Keeps Water Out This Time
Apparently when a Navy SEAL takes a minisubmarine to a combat zone, his ride is an open system, meaning they literally spend hours with their bodies exposed to the water. Sounds terrible! Fortunately, they just got an upgrade. The Navy has been trying to get the SEALs into a new Swimmer Delivery Vehicle (SDV) for … Continued
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Tech News
Google Earth’s View of the Boneyard, Where Planes Go to Die
The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), also known as the Boneyard, is a four square mile site in Arizona housing 4,000 retired aircraft—or at least one of almost every US armed forces plane since WWII. Google Earth has recently released this gorgeous (in a maudlin sort of way), 1.5MB satellite view of the … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech News
The Navy’s Fleet of Uber Classified Super Ultra High Tech Ship Cleaning Robots
The robots that scrub the decks on the USS Freedom? They’re just simple Roombas. The three bots go by the names Scooba Stevens, Chief Miles O’Brien, and ITSN Unger, referencing Big Daddy, Star Trek and The Odd Couple, respectively. Very cute, but little do we know, DARPA charges us like $250,000 after slapping on a … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Remote-Controlled Roaches: The Next Front Line in Nuclear Defense
I’m sorry, roaches that I’ve squashed. I didn’t know that one day your kin would be our nuke-detecting salvation. Nuclear engineers from Texas A&M, who clearly are less squeamish than I am, have attached radioactivity sensors to the backs of cockroaches. Oh, sorry, to the backs of remote-controlled cockroaches, which sounds like the start of … Continued
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Tech News
Microsoft Refused to Sell Xbox 360s to the Military for Training
The military currently trains its soldiers using PCs, but they were interested in switching to the Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, Microsoft was not too interested in helping them out. According to Danger Room, Microsoft refused to sell consoles to Roger Smith, chief technology officer for PEO STRI, the Army command responsible … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech News
Historic Naval Gunship, Fully Cloaked
After Japan decimated the Allied Fleet in WWII’s Battle of the Java Sea, the Abraham Crijnssen, a minesweeper, was ordered to escape to Australia. To avoid detection, the 186-foot boat was simply covered in branches. [HNSA via MAKE via boingboing]
By Mark Wilson -
io9
The Iraq War Was A Turning Point For Robot Armies
An old trope of science fiction, from Asimov to the Teminator series, is the robot uprising. But robots have already started taking over – at least in the US military, where robots now carry out 33,000 missions per year. Call them the New Hessians: Like the German troops hired by the Brits to fight in … Continued
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Tech NewsMajor Laser: US Military’s Airborne Laser Tracks and Engages a Missile, in Mid-Air
The US military released this video of its YAL-1 airborne laser engaging a missile surrogate, all in mid-air. Guaranteed, it’s the most laser action you’ll see today. We don’t know much about this test. Here’s what we’ve got: The YAL-1 Airborne Laser engages the MARTI missile surrogate during a 10 January 2009 flight test. The … Continued
By Dan Nosowitz -
Tech NewsNASA’s Puffin Is a Stealthy, Personal Tilt-Rotor Aircraft
What’s cooler than a hover-capable, electric-powered, super-quiet personal VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft? If you answered “absolutely nothing,” do read on, because NASA is preparing to oblige you. The space agency’s Puffin aircraft design will be officially unveiled tomorrow, showing just how far personal, electrically propelled flight could change the ways we live and … Continued
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Tech News
US Military Discharges Part of Robot Army Over Budget Issues
It’s rough for robots in the armed services lately. Lack of funding is forcing the United States military to end the Army’s Future Combat Systems program and eliminate many robotic soldiers, including autonomous helicopters and mine-sniffing transport vehicles. The good news is that some of the remaining funds are being used to upgrade existing programs … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
Tech News
Rescue Drone Looks Like Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder
While this might look like something found on Tatooine, it’s actually a new Israeli drone designed for rescue and cargo operations. It just had its first hovering test, so it may be in the field before too long. [Danger Room]
By Adam Frucci -
io9
You Never Want To Stare Down The Barrel Of The Atomic Cannon
The nuclear cannon dubbed “Atomic Annie” fires a 280 millimeter nuclear artillery shell packing 15 kilotons of explosive force, in this breathtaking image from 1953’s Operation Upshot-Knothole in Nevada. Check out more images from our only nuclear artillery test. Flickr user Nevada Tumbleweed has been posting dozens of pics from the 1953 nuclear cannon test, … Continued
