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Military, new technology, Science & Technology News, Weapons

The US successfully tested a laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight

June 8, 2020

Hong Kong (CNN)A US Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday.

Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executing “the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser” to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement said.

The images show the laser emanating from the deck of the warship. Short video clips show what appears to be the drone burning.

Continue reading… “The US successfully tested a laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight”

AI, Aviation, Military, military drones, Science & Technology News, Weapons

The Air Force’s AI-powerd ‘Skyborg’ drones could fly as early as 2023

June 5, 2020

The drones would fly alongside Air Force warplanes, doing jobs too dangerous or dull for pilots.

The Air Force is soliciting the aerospace industry to provide flyable “Skyborg” drones by 2023.

The drones will be powered by artificial intelligence, capable of taking off, landing, and performing missions on their own.

Skyborg will not only free manned pilots from dangerous and dull missions but allow the Air Force to add legions of new, unpiloted, cheap planes.

The U.S. Air Force is finally pushing into the world of robot combat drones, vowing to fly the first of its “Skyborg” drones by 2023. The service envisions Skyborg as a merging of artificial intelligence with jet-powered drones. The result will be drones capable of flying alongside fighter jets, carrying out dangerous missions. Skyborg drones will be much cheaper than piloted aircraft, allowing the Air Force to grow its fleet at a lower cost.

Continue reading… “The Air Force’s AI-powerd ‘Skyborg’ drones could fly as early as 2023”

Aviation, government, Military, Science & Technology News

The Air Force is tired of waiting, so it’s kickstarting the flying car industry

May 18, 2020

The goal is to have a fully operational flying car fleet by 2023.

Agility Prime is the U.S. Air Force’s new commercial development program for flying cars. In part, the Air Force wants to create a healthy domestic industry for the vehicles to keep abreast of security concerns.

By 2023, the Air Force hopes to have an operational fleet of the vehicles.

It feels like the U.S. has been on the brink of a flying car revolution for half a century. Every so often, a company claims to be just two or three years away from the perfect avian vehicle. In 2011, it was rumored that a company called Terrafugia would have $227,000 flying cars “in a matter of months,” and even Uber has promised to have autonomous flyers by 2023.

Continue reading… “The Air Force is tired of waiting, so it’s kickstarting the flying car industry”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, government, Military, Science & Technology News

The intelligence community is developing its own AI ethics

March 13, 2020

While less public than the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the intelligence community has been developing its own set of principles for the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

The Pentagon made headlines last month when it adopted its five principles for using artificial intelligence, marking the end of a months-long effort over what guidelines the department should follow as it develops new AI tools and AI-enabled technologies.

Less well known is that the intelligence community is developing its own principles governing the use of AI.

“The intelligence community has been doing it’s own work in this space as well. We’ve been doing it for quite a bit of time,” Ben Huebner, chief of the Office of Director of National Intelligence’s Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency Office, said at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance event March 4.

Continue reading… “The intelligence community is developing its own AI ethics”

drones, Military, Science & Technology News, Weapons

US Navy deploys first anti-drone laser dazzler weapon

February 27, 2020

Artist’s concept of a laser weapon in action

The US Navy has successfully installed its first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) laser weapon aboard one of its warships. During dry-dock operations, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) received the stand-alone laser system, which is designed to blind the sensors on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).

The ODIN laser isn’t the first to be deployed on a US Navy warship. That honor goes to the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Laser Weapon System (LaWS), which was deployed on the USS Ponce (LPD-15) in 2014. However, this experience by the team behind LaWS at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division provided the expertise needed to complete the development of ODIN.

Continue reading… “US Navy deploys first anti-drone laser dazzler weapon”

Automation, Aviation, Military, military drones, Science & Technology News

The Navy’s surprise unmanned fighter is a glimpse of war’s near future

February 12, 2020

The Navy converted manned combat jets into unmanned ones. Nobody had any idea they were doing it.

The U.S. Navy announced that it converted EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets into unmanned vehicles.

In a test, a manned Growler controlled two unmanned Growlers.

The previously unknown test could mean that unmanned Navy warplanes are coming sooner than experts thought.

In a surprise announcement, the U.S. Navy revealed on Tuesday that it had successfully flown tests involving unmanned versions of the EA-18G Growler electronic attack fighter. The tests involved a single manned EA-18G controlling two unmanned versions of the same aircraft, opening up the possibility that the U.S. Navy could fly armed unmanned aircraft sooner than originally thought.

Continue reading… “The Navy’s surprise unmanned fighter is a glimpse of war’s near future”

Aviation, Military, military drones, Science & Technology News, Weapons

Drones are making America’s F-22 and F-35 more deadly than ever

February 3, 2020

US Air Force F-22s and F-35s will soon launch and control recoverable attack drones from the cockpit of the plane.

Key point: This technology, which hinges upon higher levels of autonomous navigation, brings a wide swath of improved mission possibilities.

US Air Force F-22s and F-35s will soon launch and control recoverable attack drones from the cockpit of the plane to expand air-combat operations, test enemy air defenses, conduct long-range ISR and even deliver weapons.

This fast-approaching technology, which calls upon advanced levels of autonomous navigation, is closer to reality due of DARPA’s Gremlins program which plans to break new ground by launching – and recovering – four drones from an in-flight C-130 next year.

Continue reading… “Drones are making America’s F-22 and F-35 more deadly than ever”

Automation, Military, military drones, Science & Technology News, Weapons

Amazing : Meet the robot tank Estonia and Singapore built to deter Russia

January 27, 2020

Flexible and deadly.

Key point: Armed robots are becoming the norm of future warfare. The question is how long humans will stay in the loop.

An Estonian company has teamed up with a Singaporean firm and joined the expanding global race to develop robotic fighting vehicles.

More and more firms are developing armed unmanned ground vehicles, some as private ventures and others in response to formal government programs. But it’s unclear how quickly armies might actually field meaningful numbers of tank-like ground robots.

News broke in June 2019 that Estonia’s Milrem Robotics and Singapore’s ST Engineering had tested a new UGV. “The companies demonstrated the UGV during a live-fire exercise held in Tapa, Estonia,” Estonian World reported.

“The new UGV is armed with a 40-millimeter automatic grenade launcher and a 12.7-millimeter heavy machine gun,” according to Estonian World.

Continue reading… “Amazing : Meet the robot tank Estonia and Singapore built to deter Russia”

Aviation, Military, military drones, Science & Technology News, Weapons

TOP GUN RAF Top Guns to fly new 4,000mph Tempest jets with new ‘virtual cockpit’ from 2035

January 24, 2020

RAF Top Guns will fly new Tempest jets with a “virtual cockpit” instead of traditional controls.

The 4,000mph fighter is due to replace the Typhoon from 2035 and will be piloted or guided remotely.

Pilots will wear virtual-reality gloves and will be able to charge course with a wink or gesture.

Rather than the familiar control column, the cockpit will feature a computer which relays information into a helmet-mounted display screen.

Continue reading… “TOP GUN RAF Top Guns to fly new 4,000mph Tempest jets with new ‘virtual cockpit’ from 2035”

China, Military, Science & Technology News, Weapons

‘Wolf pack attack’: China launches new killer robot ship

January 23, 2020

China’s new killer robot ship that can carry out anti-submarine and anti-ship missions has undergone its first sea trial, according to a Chinese defence industry magazine.

Called the JARI, the unmanned surface vessel is said to be the world’s first USV with multiple roles – anti-submarine, air defence and surface combat – and powerful weaponry.

The prototype was launched in August and was recently photographed during a sea trial, according to a report in the latest issue of Ordnance Industry Science Technology.

It did not give details of when or where the trial took place.

Continue reading… “‘Wolf pack attack’: China launches new killer robot ship”

Aviation, Military, new technology, Science & Technology News

U.S. Air Force scientists developed liquid metal which autonomously changes structure

January 2, 2020

As reported by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, military scientists have developed a “Terminator-like” liquid metal that can autonomously change the structure, just like in a Hollywood movie.

The scientists developed liquid metal systems for stretchable electronics – that can be bent, folded, crumpled and stretched – are major research areas towards next-generation military devices.

Conductive materials change their properties as they are strained or stretched. Typically, electrical conductivity decreases and resistance increases with stretching.

The material recently developed by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) scientists, called Polymerized Liquid Metal Networks, does just the opposite. These liquid metal networks can be strained up to 700%, autonomously respond to that strain to keep the resistance between those two states virtually the same, and still return to their original state. It is all due to the self-organized nanostructure within the material that performs these responses automatically.

Continue reading… “U.S. Air Force scientists developed liquid metal which autonomously changes structure”

Military, Science & Technology News, Weapons

Here’s the Pentagon’s terrifying plan for Cyborg supersoldiers

December 16, 2019

The U.S. military wants soldiers that have superhuman eyesight, controllable augmented muscles that turn untrained novices into expert killers, and more.

Cybernetic enhancements that fuse humans and machines are coming, and the U.S. Military wants to be prepared.

A new report from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center—a scientific research division of the Army with a focus on biological and chemical weapons—detailed what the field of cybernetics might look in 2050. The report, titled Cyborg Soldiers 205: Human/ Machine Fusion and the Implications for the Future of the DOD, reads like the framework for a dystopian novel set in a near future where injured soldiers are cybernetically enhanced, but come home to an America terrified of cyborgs.

“The primary objective of this effort was to determine the potential of machines that are physically integrated within the human body to augment and enhance the performance of human beings over the next 30 years,” the researchers said.

Continue reading… “Here’s the Pentagon’s terrifying plan for Cyborg supersoldiers”