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Tech NewsGadgetsOmniscient Military Blimp to Fly by 2011
Forget highflying spy planes, the US military plans to send an all-seeing blimp to a height of 65,000 feet to spot enemies, watch out for cruise missiles and relay communications using a huge phased-array radar antenna embedded in its belly. Lockheed Martin is figuring out how to make the thing light enough to fly and … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Army Improves Tourniquet After 2000+ Years
We all know how tourniquets work. You take off your tie and make a big fat knot just about where your friend’s bloody stump is squirting buckets of blood, thereby saving him long enough so he can tell you “who did this to [him]! Who did this to [him]!” Well, since the military doesn’t wear … Continued
John Biggs -
Tech NewsGadgets
Rail Guns Over Pyongyang
The Navy is working on a 5,000 projectile-per-minute railgun designed to shoot explosive hell on a target up to 300 nautical miles away. While this definitely doesn’t make for good vacation video footage, it does put 100% of North Korea at risk, provided we ever decided to send them a bit o’ honey from the … Continued
By Johnb -
Tech News
Parvis Zypad WL 10000 Wrist Computer
Here’s what all the fashionable soldiers will be wearing on battlefields soon, the Parvus ZYPAD WL 1000, a wrist-wearable wireless computer that the company rolled out at the Armed Forces Communication Electronics Association’s TechNet 2006 International Conference. It uses a combination of WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS for location and communication, and can run either Linux … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Cat Food, Helping Train America’s Army
Leave it to the U.S. military to use every possible method to gain the upper hand. This time saw the Army use cat food boxes to create a 1/35th scale model of an Iraqi city in order to run simulations. Now, why would the Army resort to using decidedly low-tech to assist in its training? … Continued
Nicholas Deleon -
Tech News
BomBots Deployed in Iraq, Living Rooms
BomBots are small robots that are designed to deliver different payloads in areas of conflict, most recently in Iraq. Because of their relatively cheap price ($5,000), the U.S. military scooped up a whole bunch of them to assist in the war effort. Their small size (only 22 inches tall and 15 pounds) make them ideal … Continued
Nicholas Deleon -
Tech NewsGadgets
The IDF Chess Set Made From Sterling Silver
While it’s one thing to play chess with the standard pieces, it’s an entirely different matter to play with actors from the Israeli Defense Forces. This particular set contains 32 individual pieces made from sterling silver, with the black pieces made from gilded sterling silver. Needless to say, this isn’t a set you’re going to … Continued
Nicholas Deleon -
Tech NewsGadgets
The Tech That Stopped Al-Zarqawi
Since we’ve had some complaints about being too political regarding certain military actions undertaken by the United States, I’ll try to keep this as straight as possible: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda man alleged to have been responsible for numerous attacks in Iraq in recent years, was killed by U.S. forces about 48 hours ago. … Continued
Nicholas Deleon -
Tech NewsGadgets
Vibrating Combat Attire
Creepy. This is some sort of vibrating haptic combat vest that will alert you to the state of your comrades in battle and might even be able to sense incoming enemies. “If the unit commander has the information about which team members are walking, running, standing, prone, kneeling, and/or firing weapons, he will be able … Continued
John Biggs -
Tech NewsGadgets
Gryphon Single-Man Flying Wing
At first we thought this was a joke—didn’t Batman have a pair of wings like this? But no, this Gryphon Single-Man Flying Wing is a parachute system whose 4.9-foot Delta wing has two jet engines on board that can carry a paratrooper 110 miles on a half gallon of jet fuel. The device will be … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Shock and Aww: Wired War in Iraq is a Flop
Looks like the “shock and awe” campaign in Iraq is not so awesome after all. The top-down data network communication that was going to be so devastating seems to be lost in a quagmire of missed connections. According to a report from the Army War College: “There is a connectivity gap. Information is not reaching … Continued
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Tech News
Air Force Drones Come to Light
Following the Global Hawk into battle, the Air Force’s latest drones, the Penetrating High Altitude Endurance system, is designed for stealthy flying behind enemy lines. These drones are thought to be covered with radar absorbing material and are thought to be based on the Compass Arrow design created back in the 1970s. Strangely enough, it’s … Continued
By Johnb -
Tech News
Crusher: Autonomous War Wagon
Like a giant, autonomous Half-Life crate, the Crusher—and its little sister Spinner—is a rolling, intelligent battlefield delivery system. For example, the Crusher aka the UGCV PerceptOR Integrated (UPI) can wander along with a platoon and dispense rocket launchers like dangerous Pez. It can also right itself and carry its own payload and complete its own … Continued
By Johnb -
Tech NewsGadgets
Military Laser Technology Making a Comeback?
Back in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan supported the development of the so-called “Star Wars” missile defense system. In essence, the Gipper wanted to be able to shoot Soviet missiles out of the sky in order to keep America safe. The Pentagon poured millions of dollars into offensive laser development, but unrealistic expectations and immature technology … Continued
By Gizloco -
Tech NewsGadgets
Hand Grenade Oil Lamp
We’re thinking there must not be much of a need for grenades in Iraq, where the troops spend most of their time waiting around for car bombs to go off. Maybe that’s why there are a lot of surplus grenades floating around, and now they’ve been made into useful objects: oil lamps available in gold, … Continued
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Tech News
F-35 Guts Revealed
We’ve all heard about the Joint Strike Fighter, with which the U.S. and U.K. are to replace aging squadrons of A-10 Thunderbolts and Harrier jump-jets. Anyone who cares has already seen shots of the prototypes in flight. Now you can see the birds as they look under construction, guts and innards exposed to the world. … Continued
By Robb -
Tech News
NTT DoCoMo to Ship Militaristic Phone
If your style leans toward the GI look and you crave that olive drab chic in a cellphone, NTT DoCoMo is planning to move out a music phone that looks vaguely like a WWII-era walkie-talkie. It has a 2.8-inch display and a 320,000-pixel camera and is well domesticated, shipping with a cradle, headphones and a … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Mini-Sensors Spot Enemies and Friends
We’ve been hearing about these for a few years now, but now they’re real. You can drop these tiny sensors in any environment, where they’ll report back on enemy movements and other news for up to 180 days. They actually create a mini mesh network and share data and video with each other and with … Continued
By Johnb -
Tech News
Protecting America With the Robolobster
The fight for world domination never lets up but humans aren t alone in their never-ending war. DARPA, the same folks who brought us, more or less, the Internet, recently developed a robotic lobster designed to swoop over seabeds, looking for mines and other offensive devices. Dubbed the Robolobster (for robotic lobster ) by DARPA … Continued
By Gizloco -
Tech NewsGadgets
M-32 MGL – Deadly and Versatile
Video game weapons are now in active use by the military in the form of the M-32 MGL. The weapon uses 40mm ammunition that would be a fine addition to Unreal or Quake, let alone Fallujah or Baghdad. In fact, this is the next-generation of the weapon used by Arnold Schwarzenegger and his crew in … Continued
By Rhbaby