US Army
Just over a 140 years ago, Richard Gatling’s famous multiple barrel invention became the scourge of the battlefield with its fearsome firepower and was used by colonising European powers to decimate the warriors of the non-industrialized nations they sought to conquer. Nowadays, the electrically-powered Dillon Aero M134D Minigun is taking the concept to new heights, using six barrels to fire up to 4,000 7.62 MM bullets per minute. As the modular M134D system can be easily adapted to any platform, it is finding favour in a host of new fearsome forms, most notably in the BAE-built Remote Guardian System being tested beneath V-22 Ospreys. Perhaps even scarier is the prospect of the weapon being used aboard the Ripsaw MS-1, a tracked 650-horsepower Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) under development which is capable of accelerating to 50 mph from standstill in around four seconds, turning in its own length and taking a 30 foot high 45 degree hill in its stride. Now is not a good time to be on the wrong team. Proof? Watch this! Read More
eMagin's Z800 3DVisor uses two OLED microdisplays to provide wearers with the 3D equivalent of a 105-inch display viewed at 12 feet’s distance. Drawing its power entirely from a USB connection, the Z800 3DVisor integrates the SVGA 3D OLED microdisplays with stereo audio, a noise canceling microphone, and a high-speed headtracker that enables full 360-degree virtual-surround viewing. Read More
July 31, 2006 Silynx creates miniature tactical hearing protection communication headsets for the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), US Army, USMC and many of the world’s elite Special Forces. It is operated by a team of experienced former Special Operations personnel worked with the SOF community to develop its new QuietOps Smart Tactical Communication Headset and Ear Protector. The company aims to replace multiple tactical communication headsets with one lightweight system with enhanced functionality, and the software-defined communication headset provides full-spectrum active noise reduction, thus enabling near-normal speech and hearing in the harshest environments. It comes with a dual wireless PTT with Picatinny rail attachment, and seamless will seamlessly integrate with the majority of SOF intercom systems. It has VOX for hands-free operation and offers super-normal hearing and sound localization along with a range of other covert communication functions plus total mask efficiency (no need for throat, boom or bone conduction mics) for complete communication flexibility. Read More
May 2, 2006 Safeguarding the soldier is the key aim of the Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle – giving soldiers enhanced stand-off capability was the reason DARPA funded the Grand Challenge and backed up again two years later with the second challenge and is now holding the challenge in an urban area – such contests dramatically accelerated research into autonomous navigation and identified the most capable people to for the military to work with. The National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) is part of the Robotics Institute in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, unveiled Crusher last week. Carnegie Mellon vehicles finished a close second and third in the Grand Challenge though everyone knew they were at the bleeding edge of robotics knowledge, the Challenge just confirming it. Crusher demonstrates just what we can expect to see on the battlefield a decade from now. In what might well be seen as an offspring of the Grand Challenge, “Crusher” is a new breed of UGV – an NREC-designed, six-wheeled, all-wheel drive, hybrid electric, skid-steered, unmanned ground vehicle. The bohemoth weighs 14,000 pounds fully fueled, and is designed to carry a 3,000-pound payload – at this 17,000 pound total weight, two Crusher vehicles can be carried by a single C-130H aircraft and dropped into any region in the world. Once on the ground, Crusher can carry up to 8,000 pounds of payload without compromising its mobility – read that as 8000 pounds of smart stuff – any combination of cargo, armour, armaments, or surveillance equipment. Crusher is also designed to withstand extreme terrain, with the ability to take in its stride regular impacts with trees, boulders, fences, tree stumps and ditches at high speed. With six wheel independent drive, Crusher can go up and over almost anything, and if in the process it should get upside down, it moves its wheels to the other side of the vehicle and starts all over again. Crusher's hybrid electric system is silent, using a high-performance SAFT-built lithium ion battery module which delivers power to the six, in-wheel UQM traction motors located in the hub drive system of each wheel. Much, much, more … interesting stuff! Read More
December 5, 2005 The Chinese were the first to experiment with explosive powders around 300 AD but it was not until 1252, when the secret ingredients of those powders were documented in an essay by Roger Bacon that the age of the cannon and “gun powder” began. The cannon of the modern era was first used sometime between 1300 and 1350 and was widely used throughout Europe by 1400, redefining warfare and reaching the heights of its powers in the 17th century before further technological developments matched its key military role. These days it would be easy to underestimate the role of the cannon in warfare where brute force has been replaced with surgical precision but ponder for a minute the capabilities of the new Howitzer M777. The M777 is the first ground combat system to make extensive use of titanium and aluminium and is approximately half the weight of comparable systems, making it easily transportable, easily towed across country at high speed and easily fitted to faster, lighter, purpose built vehicles. It is capable of firing a 155mm shell at up to five rounds per minute while achieving high levels of accuracy with targets up to 30 kilometres away. Firing Raytheon’s new Excalibur satellite-guided artillery shell, the M777 has proven pinpoint accurate, and although specifications call for them being capable of striking within ten metres at a range of 40 kilometres, tests have shown much greater accuracy. Read More
December 10, 2004 A new era of robot warfare has been launched with the US Army employing 100 TALON robots equipped with off-the-shelf chemical, gas, temperature, and radiation sensors for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. The explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robots are to be used for a variety of missions ranging from clearing live grenades to neutralising mines in shallow water, and can be adapted for small mobile weapons systems (SMWS) for force protection. Read More
Two US Marine Corps' skydivers made their first combat zone landing earlier this year in a remote hot spot in Iraq's Al Anbar Province. The landings were significant enough to go down in history but there was little fanfare as the aim of the exercise was to supply remote troops in a combat zone - the Sherpas, as this robot parachure controller is known, each rode a pallet of rations to the drop zone, controlling their chute from two miles high to within 200 metres of their target. Read More
The US Army is digitising the battlefield to such an extent, that it has awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract valued at approximately US$100 million for the supply of DRS Technologies rugged Applique Computer Systems for the U.S. Army's Force XXI Battle Command. The US Army already has over 9000 DRS FBCB2s which incorporate advanced digital information processing and networking for improved combat support, real-time command and control, and enhanced operability and situational awareness throughout the military's force structure. Under the new contract, the FBCB2 will complete transition to full-rate production. Read More
The US Army is digitising the battlefield to such an extent, that it has awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract valued at approximately US$100 million for the supply of DRS Technologies rugged Applique Computer Systems for the U.S. Army's Force XXI Battle Command. The US Ar... Read More
The next time the US military goes to war in a foreign land, there will be a lot more robots and a lot less soldiers doing the grunt work. One of the first tasks that will be assigned to robots instead of soldiers will be driving - resupply, convoy operations, ground medical evacuation and unmanned reconnaissance are all areas targeted for autonomous vehicles. Read More
