Military

03:45 August 28, 2007 PDT

Multiple Kill Vehicle technology allows missile defense units to destroy entire fleets of ...

August 28, 2007 The Cold War might be over, but the underlying strategy that arose with Reagan’s Star Wars missile defense program in the 1980s lives on as the threat of long-range missile attack remains a global concern. Lockheed Martin have just announced successful testing of part of the Missile Defense Agency's “Multiple Kill Vehicle” program designed to be a single-launch platform to neutralize an entire fleet of incoming enemy missiles. Read More

New Chinook unveiled at Fort Campbell

23:40 August 20, 2007 PDT

Enhanced safety: the new Chinook (Photo by Gregory Frye)

August 21, 2007 Aviation history was made at Fort Campbell recently as a newly designed CH-47 Chinook helicopter was officially ushered into operation. Allowing greater capability and Soldier safety, the new $30 million bird was turned over to Company B, 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade. Read More

MEADS reveal first glimpse of advanced battle management system

16:34 August 19, 2007 PDT

MEADS battle management tactical operations center

August 20, 2007 MEADS International has released the first photographs of the highly versatile battle management tactical operations center (TOC) planned for the Medium Extended Air Defense System – a mobile air defense system designed to replace existing systems in the United States, Germany and Italy. Read More

Boeing's CH-47F Chinook helicopter fielded to first U.S. Army Unit

00:40 August 16, 2007 PDT

New Boeing CH-47F takes flight, Photo: Fred Troilo

Aug 16, 2007 Boeing has announced that its new CH-47F Chinook helicopter has been certified combat-ready by the U.S. Army and fielded to the first operational unit. Since being first unveiled in mid 2006, the new Chinook has successfully completed 60 rigorous flight test hours including simulated mission scenarios. Read More

LED Incapacitator is enough to make you sick

By Shaun McKeegan

21:09 August 9, 2007 PDT

August 10, 2007 A real life “light saber” that can subdue anyone in its path? This new type of non-lethal weapon comes in the form of a flashlight that totally incapacitates whoever looks into it. The LED (Light Emitting Diode) Incapacitator emits bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths that cause disorientation, temporary blindness, nausea, and even vomiting. Read More

BAE Systems demonstrate Common Modular Power System for tactical wheeled vehicles

01:57 August 9, 2007 PDT

New power system proposed for the Humvee

August 9, 2007 BAE Systems are demonstrating a prototype Common Modular Power System (CMPS) at the Power and Energy Symposium currently being held at Troy, Michigan. This is in response to a need expressed by the United States Department of Defense for a power system that is able to provide 400amps of 28-volt DC power across the full rev range of a High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee ) - a perceived requirement for 21st century warfighting. Read More

B-2 Bomber with Massive Penetrator weapon

By Gizmag Team

July 23, 2007 Just how important does someone have to be to have their own 30,000 pound bomb delivered by a billion dollar aircraft? We'll soon know. We have written about the Massive Penetrator weapon before here and detailed the awesome firepower and effectively infinite range of the US$1.157 billion B-2 here. The B-2 is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions through previously impenetrable defenses. The B-2’s low-observable technologies with high aerodynamic efficiency, large payload and an unrefueled range of approximately 6,000 nautical miles (9,600 kilometers) give it the unique ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets. Read More

Happy 60th birthday to the deadliest gun in history

July 8, 2007 No-one knows how many AK-47s have been made - a patent was never applied for, so it has been copied by numerous small arms manufacturers across the world since it came into being this weekend, sixty years ago. One estimate puts the number of Kalashnikov AK-47s manufactured at 100 million, making it by far the most populous rifle in history. For six decades, it has been the common man’s rifle - the lowest common denominator of conflict across the planet and the standard issue of many armies still. A triumph of self-taught design, Mikhail Kalashnikov’s AK-47 delivered more bang-per-buck than any other firearm of its day and it never stopped working. Born in 1947, the AK-47 has been best friend to hundreds of millions of men, driving the popularity of the boy’s name Kalash in war-torn countries. Cumulatively, AK-47s have been the first spoil of war, so each weapon would have changed sides many times, with every damaged weapon yielding its undamaged parts to another composite weapon – astoundingly, of the 100 million made, 30 million are still in service in the harshest environment of all. That equally qualifies the gun as delivering the highest levels of misery and wasted humanity of any invention in history. Like the spear, bow and arrow, sword and earlier incarnations of the rifle, the AK-47 has been the dominant military weapon responsible for nearly all changes of sovereignty, and is now taking its place in history in the national emblems of many new nations. Sadly, Kalashnikov’s body of work suggests he would have been a genius in any other field. Read More

Lightweight, hybrid multifunction fuel cell to lighten soldiers' backpacks

This hybrid power supply will power a range of devices for soldiers in the field.

July 5, 2007 Infantry soldiers have a tough lot in life. Apart from being constantly shot at and placed in risk of bodily harm, they're frequently forced to carry around large amounts of heavy equipment, sometimes weighing over a third of their bodyweight. On a typical 5-day-operation, disposable and rechargeable batteries alone account for about ten kilograms of backpack weight, not to mention the various charging devices for cell phones, PDAs and visual systems. There's good news though - German researchers have developed a lightweight hybrid power supply that will soon be able to ease the load. Read More

TASER-armed robots keep police out of harm's way

TASER and iRobot are collaborating on a TASER-shooting robot

June 3, 2007 Love them or hate them, TASER stun guns have become an essential and effective part of law enforcement armory. Perhaps their main drawback has been that even the long-range wireless shotgun-mounted TASER XREP puts a police officer within 30 feet of a potentially dangerous suspect before they're in range. Now, a new partnership between TASER and iRobot will see the construction of TASER-wielding robots that can be sent in to incapacitate violent suspects without ever exposing police officers to the risk of harm. What's more, TASER has released their Remote Area Denial (TRAD) system, an unmanned device that operates in a network to identify and incapacitate intruders in secured areas. It all points towards an interesting future with embedded moral implications; how long will it be until suspects are told "you have 15 seconds to comply?" Read More

CUTLASS next generation Bomb Disposal Robot

Under-Secretary of State for Defence, Derek Twigg MP, paid a visit to East Anglia to highl...

June 28, 2007 Northrop Grumman demonstrated its CUTLASS unmanned explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) vehicle to the U.K. Under-Secretary of State for Defence last week. The CUTLASS system offers the latest technology in a modular design, enabling the user to deal with the full range of both military and improvised explosive devices. Its highly versatile design means that it is capable of accommodating a wide range of payloads, sensors and tools. The manipulator arm is equipped with a state-of-the-art gripper and has nine degrees of freedom for greater movement and agility inside limited spaces, such as the interior of a car. The robot is able to creep along at deliberately slow speeds for delicate operations and may accelerate to high speeds to enable rapid travel. The six-wheeled design offers mobility on all types of hard and soft terrain and in all weather conditions. Read More

TASER to launch wireless non-lethal projectile

June 27, 2007 TASER is set to introduce the latest addition to its range of non-lethal weapons next month. The new Extended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) is launched from a standard 12-gauge shotgun platform and is the first wireless TASER device. Now well established in the market, TASER stun guns are widely used in law enforcement, military and more recently, consumer applications. Along the way the company has become embroiled in a string of court cases relating to injuries or deaths which were claimed to be caused by the device and has released a special white paper on the topic ahead of the XERP launch. Though we cannot think of a situation where it would not be preferable to respond with non-lethal force rather than lethal force, it seems people still wish to take on TASER legally - so far the scoreline reads 51-0. Read More

LANdroids - self-organizing, self-healing communications network for urban warfare

June 25, 2007 Modern warfare is increasingly urban - when you're fighting small groups of anonymous guerrilla insurgents there's no pitched battlefields and American forces are finding that their radio communications are suffering in these Non-Line-Of-Sight environments. The solution? Squadrons of smart communications robots, or LANdroids, each the size of a deck of cards, that can be scattered through an urban environment to create a self-organizing mesh radio network. Each unit constantly repositions itself for maximal signal strength, and if a LANdroid is destroyed, the rest of the units will reposition themselves to restore communications. Read More

Advanced Gun Systems for U.S. Navy's futuristic new destroyers

Advanced Gun Systems aboard the Zumwalt Class Destroyer

June 21, 2007 The role of the Navy has changed with the U.S. "War on Terror" - it is seldom involved in direct naval battles and much more often relegated to support of invading (liberating?) land and air forces. Thus, munitions are being designed to suit. BAE Systems' Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) are currently under construction and will redefine the state of the art for naval firepower. The vertically loaded, pivoting gun towers will launch 155mm standard and guided munitions to a range of approximately 100 miles, with accuracy between 20 and 50 metres and at a rate of up to 12 rounds per minute. Read More

Removable Laser Countermeasure System successfully thwarts heat-seeking missiles

The small pod containing Northrop Grumman's laser Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DI...

June 19, 2007 We’ve all seen the scenario many times in films – a heat-seeking missile is launched towards a helicopter and relentlessly pursues its prey to destruction. Now it appears that there’s a removable laser Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) System which can defeat such threats. The system was tested for the first time recently and successfully thwarted a series of simulated heat-seeking missile attacks on a Dutch AH-64D Apache helicopter during flight trials at Vliehors Test Range in the Netherlands. The small pod containing Northrop Grumman's laser Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) system mounts to the end of the stub-wing on the Apache AH-64D attack helicopter. The system functions by automatically detecting a missile launch, determining if it is a threat and activating a high-intensity laser-based countermeasure system to track and defeat the missile. Read More

Next-generation Sky Warrior's maiden flight a success

June 18, 2007 Resurrecting a great name from the 1950s, General Atomics have completed the maiden flight of their Sky Warrior Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). While the original, built by Douglas, was known for being the largest and heaviest "whale" of a bomber to take-off and land on aircraft carriers, the new Sky Warrior will operate as an unmanned long range surveillance, communications and weapons delivery drone. Able to run happily on diesel or jet fuel due to its Heavy Fuel Engine, the Sky Warrior will form a key part of the U.S. Army's Extended Range/Multi Purpose Unmanned Aircraft system. Read More

Using polarisation to help detect deadly trip-wires

Polarisation technology shows up the hidden trip wires in the image.

June 4, 2007 Silent, unmoving, millimetre-thin and extremely difficult to see, trip and command wires are frequently found on land mines, conventional munitions and many improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In a bid to increase troop and civilian safety in war zones, defense contractor QinetiQ has been given a UK£800,000 contract to produce and evaluate portable tripwire detection devices based on polarization technology that's showing positive results. Read More

U.S. Defense report nervous on Chinese military capability

May 31, 2007 A new report from the US department of defense has raised concerns about China's growing military power, particularly in regard to cyber-warfare preparations and an expanding counter-space program. The report to congress entitled "Military Power of the People’s Republic of China" asserts that whilst Beijing continues to focus its military preparedness on the Taiwan Straits, it appears to be shifting its attention to arenas that may pose a greater threat to the rest of the world. Read More

High altitude launch capability demonstrated for MK-54 torpedos

May 30, 2007 If there’s an absolute truth about military technology, it’s that it keeps getting more deadly with each passing year and the High Altitude ASW Weapons Concept (HAAWC) is a prime example. HAAWC employs the Lockheed Martin LongShot Wing Adapter Kit to allow the launch of torpedoes from high altitudes and long standoff ranges, allowing aircrews to remain beyond the reach of enemy air defences. Additionally, the manoeuvrability of the concept allows for off-axis launch of torpedoes at potential undersea targets preventing the need for the aircraft to manoeuvre. Read More

Electromagnetic scanner detects threat liquids without taking the lid off

Sellex's Sencion thread liquids detector - the flashing red light indicates the presence o...

May 29, 2007 Without going through the hassle of removing bottle-tops, staff at security checkpoints are unable to see the difference between a bottle of drinking water and a potential molotov cocktail - the solution has commonly been to prevent people from passing through checkpoints with bottles. Now there's a device that can instantly detect whether a bottle contains a potential threat liquid without taking the top off. The Senicon is already in use in Japan's Kansai International Airport - and it's currently under review by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for use in airports and other areas under threat of terrorist attacks. Read More

Portable XPAK can detect the tiniest traces of explosives on any surface

The hand on the left is visible due to the presence of explosive material. The hand on the...

May 23, 2007 One of the telltale signs of an explosive crate, envelope or package is the tiny trace amounts of explosive chemicals the bomb-maker leaves on the outer of the package when he closes it. Trace quantities of explosives are very hard to wash off hands as well, which is the theory behind the XPAK, a new portable explosives detection unit that allows shipping officers and security personnel to quickly scan for trace quantities of explosives in the field. Read More

New study examines physiological impacts of taser use