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Tech NewsRoomba Maker to Develop DARPA’s ChemBot Morphing Robots
Last year DARPA began the search for a company that could develop robots capable of squeezing through small openings and returning to their original size, shape, and functionality on the other side. Like most of DARPA’s projects, the idea was way-out there. However, it appears that iRobot (the guys behind practical home robots like the … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech News
Berkeley Group Uses iPhone to Control UAV Squadron
The Center for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles (C3UV—the "3" makes it hip) at the University of California, Berkeley has developed a system that uses the iPhone to develop tasks, set coordinates and send orders to a fleet of UAVs. Naturally, this development is interesting because it allows a single person to control a large … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech NewsGadgets
DARPA Technology Autonomously Lands Severely Damaged Aircraft
DARPA, the Pentagon’s source for R&D (and lovers of acronyms big and small) have released a video illustrating the Damage Tolerance and Autonomous Landing Solution they developed alongside Athena Technologies. Basically, DTALS is designed to take over for a pilot in the event that the aircraft sustains heavy damage. The system automatically detects the damage … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
io9
U.S. Soldiers Need Brain Enhancers, Say Defense Department Scientists
The latest arms race will take place entirely inside the human mind. So say top scientists with the U.S. military, who have gotten quite a bit of government funding to explore things like memory-enhancing drugs, mind-reading binoculars, and brain-computer interfaces. Today Danger Room’s Noah Shachtman reports on how the U.S. military’s greatest fear these days, … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Lightning Guns to Short Out Cars, Fry Roadside Bombs
If there’s one thing that Storm from the X-men has taught us, it’s that controlling lightning is pretty cool. Controlling it as a weapon? Even cooler. That’s why Applied Energetics (formerly Ionatron) is developing gigantic lightning guns that will be able to stall a car from afar. Initially, they were focused on zapping people, but … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech NewsGadgets
New MAARS Kill-Bot Delivered to Military, May Finally Get to Shoot Something
You may recall that earlier robots developed by Foster-Miller had some minor safety issues in Iraq last year that reportedly shook up confidence in the entire kill-bot program. That story turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was clear that a newer, safer design would have to be implemented to get … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech NewsGadgets
Boeing Successfully Fires 25 kW Solid-State Lasers, Laser Weapons One Step Closer to Being a Reality
Boeing has just tested its new thin-disk laser, the most powerful solid-state laser ever made. It fires at over 25 kilowatts, with the scalability proven to go up to a 100 kilowatt laser in the coming years. A 100 kW laser would be the most powerful ever made, one that has a lot of challenges … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
After Losing Nukes, Air Base Fails Inspection: Security Caught Playing Games On Cellphones
After losing track of six nuclear warheads last year, you would think that the crack security team at Minot Air Force Base would pull it together for their much anticipated nuclear security inspection. Unfortunately, you would be mistaken. Inspectors from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency failed the security wing based on a number of infractions—including … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech NewsGadgets
New Army Cluster Bomb Rains Down Thousands of Deadly Darts
Cluster bombs are increasingly frowned upon—there’s an international agreement banning them, though the US hasn’t signed on—in part because even low dud rates leave lots of little unexploded bombs scattered over a wide area. An alternative developed by the army is a GPS-guided version of the Multiple Launch Rocket system with a payload of thousands … Continued
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io9
Boeing Developing Planes with Frickin Laser Beams
As far as air-to-ground weapons go, bombs are effective but not known for their precision. That’s why Boeing is hard at work on a project the U.S. military has long lusted after: plane-mounted lasers. Once we get these things operational, putting your munitions factories next to your day-care centers isn’t going to work anymore, and … Continued
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Tech News
World’s Smallest UAV Weighs 10 Grams, Flaps Like a Bird
AreoVironment is building the world’s smallest UAV, called the Nano Air Vehicle, that has moving wings instead of a propeller or engine. DARPA has given the company $636,000 and six months to demonstrate an ultra-small UAV that will be under three inches long and under 10 grams. The concept for the project came about through … Continued
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ScienceHealth
DARPA Developing “Fracture Putty” to Heal and Support Shattered Bones
DARPA, the military’s premier R&D team has been given the task of producing “a dynamic putty-like material” that can be packed in around shattered bone to help support a patient’s body during the healing process. It would also be designed to bio-degrade when all is said and done. If DARPA is successful in developing this … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech NewsGadgets
Eco-Friendly Bombs Ensure No Smog Results from The Destruction of Your Ancestral Village
I have a problem I’m sure you’re all familiar with: eco guilt. Whenever I’m about to drop a gigantic bomb on say, a small village, I get to thinking about the impact of the bomb on the environment. I mean, I’m not a monster. Popular explosives like TNT and HMX create nitrogen oxides when they … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech NewsGadgets
Soldiers in Iraq Get ‘Paintball Guns on Steroids’
Apparently, the new weapon against insurgents in Iraq is a paintball gun. Mind you, it’s a paintball gun that uses paintballs full of a mixture of paint and the brittle metal bismuth, and it’s a paintball gun that fires at 900 PSI compared to the standard 300-500 PSI, but it’s a paintball gun all the … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech NewsGadgets
AMXD Puts Fighter Pilots’ Piddle Packs Out of Business
Please, cease your screaming at the back, ladies, and feast your eyes on the AMXD, aka the “piddle pack.” Developed by a Vermont firm, the trunks have a built-in hose and pump (stop boasting, I’ve heard it all before) which allows fighter pilots to relieve themselves during missions. Until the AMXD, or Advanced Mission Extender … Continued
By AddyDugdale -
Tech NewsGadgetsInside Video of Operation “Blow Up a Satellite”: Heart Pounding Action…With Missiles!
Remember how the Navy fired a missile at that spy satellite a few months ago and made it go boom in one shot? Not surprisingly, they were quite proud of their accomplishment—which is why they have compiled footage of their exploits in a series of tense behind-the-scenes moments. The video after the break even shows … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech NewsGadgets
The World’s Most Terrifying Weapons
If you have ever lost sleep thinking about what military labs the world over are cooking up to shoot up, blow up, or otherwise maim their enemies (and sometimes innocent civilians), you may want to skip the list of the world’s “spookiest” weapons collected by Pop Sci. Many of the 20 we are already familiar … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech News
US Military Wasted Millions on Fake Hardware, Sparking Cyber-Terrorism Fears
The U.S. Military has spent millions of dollars on counterfeit computer components over the years, according to an FBI report. This not only screws over businesses, but it also makes it easier for cyber-terrorists to hack into our systems by putting trojans and viruses in fake circuitry. An anti-counterfeit initiative by the FBI, led to … Continued
By Elaine Chow -
Tech News
Russia’s Zubr Hovercraft May Finally Justify Use Of “Xtreme”
This admittedly isn’t the newest military tech on the block, but The History Channel in us just couldn’t help writing it up. Russia makes the world’s largest military hovercraft dubbed the “Zubr.” It displaces 621 tons and can haul twice the payload of similar boats from the US Navy (somewhere around 150 tons). With production … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech NewsGadgets
Camouflage Paint Hides Vehicles From Radar, Subsequent Missiles
A German inventor has developed a paint called AR 1 that can hide a vehicle from radar, and most importantly, “all militarily relevant frequencies.” How it works is unclear, though one test researcher proposes it’s either by reflecting radar waves in a pattern so they cancel one another out, or by utilizing microscopic magnets to … Continued
By Mark Wilson