military Archive

  • U.S. Army arrests Wikileaks whistleblower

    U.S. Army arrests Wikileaks whistleblower

    Posted on June 7, 2010 | No Comments
    Wikileaks vs. the U.S. Military continues. You'll recall that the U.S. Army labeled the Web site a "potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC) threat to the US Army." Now the Army has arrested the person who hundreds of thousands of documents, including that pretty gruesome video from a few weeks back, to the site. The person, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst, hasn't been formally charged but is being held somewhere in Kuwait.

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  • U.S. military launches unmanned X-37B spacecraft. Too bad it refuses to tell us what it’s for!

    U.S. military launches unmanned X-37B spacecraft. Too bad it refuses to tell us what it’s for!

    Posted on April 23, 2010 | No Comments
    It's all a bit like Mass Effect. The U.S. Air Force successfully launched the X-37B unmanned spacecraft yesterday, but the question that nobody knows the answer to: what's it for? The Air Force refuses to say what the X-37B's mission on beyond something along the lines "we wanted to see if it works." OK, but do you plan on doing with it? "Sorry, classified." Neat.

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  • Those drones you use in Modern Warfare 2? They could be illegal in real life.

    Those drones you use in Modern Warfare 2? They could be illegal in real life.

    Posted on March 24, 2010 | No Comments
    You know all those drones you kids use to rain grim death upon your unfortunate friends in Modern Warfare 2? Well, according to an American University law professor's Congressional testimony, they may be illegal under international law. Of course, they could be totally fine, too, it's just that nobody really knows for sure. That's probably not what the U.S. military wants to hear, given how much it has spent, and will spend, on drones.

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  • Video: The $113.5 million F-35B Lightning II can float in the air for a little bit

    Video: The $113.5 million F-35B Lightning II can float in the air for a little bit

    Posted on March 20, 2010 | No Comments
    There's a certain amount of pride in seeing a country pump out something like the new F-35B Lightning II fighter jet. At $113.5 million per aircraft, it's about as far away from the meaning of the word "inexpensive" as possible. It makes you think, well, if we can afford things like that, why can't we afford things like this? But, whatever. The entire purpose of this post is to watch a legitimately exciting video. So, let's!

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  • If only you had actually seen The Hurt Locker

    If only you had actually seen The Hurt Locker

    Posted on March 18, 2010 | No Comments
    Who saw The Hurt Locker? Oh, right: none of you. Even if you didn't you probably are already familiar with the basic concept: a U.S. Army guy whose job it is to disable I.E.D.s sorta goes crazy. That's the gist of it. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense in the UK has unveiled something called the Dragon Runner, a remote-controlled robot that disables bombs.

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  • CrunchCool: Russian Typhoon class submarine

    CrunchCool: Russian Typhoon class submarine

    Posted on March 9, 2010 | No Comments
    Here’s something old, but definitely cool and worth showing you. Livejournal user Igor113 posted some pictures from his trip to… somewhere in Russia. He loves to travel and take pictures, and these are some extremely cool photographs of some rusted and cool equipment. Igor did apologize for the quality of his camera though, and requests [...]

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  • Darpa wants a real C-3PO to translate for troops Over There

    Darpa wants a real C-3PO to translate for troops Over There

    Posted on February 17, 2010 | No Comments
    Shocking admission: I've never seen a Star Wars movie. Well, that's not entirely true: I did see Episode One and Episode Three, but I'm pretty sure those don't really count. (I liked the song "Duel of the Fates," though, and the one that played when Anakin fought the other guy in the lava or whatever.) I bring this up because this story is about C3PO, the friendly robot that I'm only familiar with because, well, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of R2D2 and C3PO, including myself. The scoop: Darpa, made famous by Metal Gear Solid, wants to commission a C3PO-like software/device that's able to translate 20 languages on the fly, identify specific speakers, and whatnot. It'd be useful for our troops in foreign lands, obviously.

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  • Marines buy portable armor that comes in a flat pack

    Marines buy portable armor that comes in a flat pack

    Posted on February 10, 2010 | No Comments
    This is strangely cool. A defense contractor developed a type of steel reinforced armor that could replace the basic sandbag encampment. The armor assembles extremely quickly and is resistant to bullets, grenades, and IED blasts. It also takes about 10 minutes to put together without tools. It really is amazing the new technology that is coming out for the military.

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  • U.S. military now wants 3D surveillance cameras. Avatar invented 3D, you know.

    U.S. military now wants 3D surveillance cameras. Avatar invented 3D, you know.

    Posted on January 25, 2010 | No Comments
    In a sense, the following story can be summed up thus: the US military wants new, hi-tech equipment. That's not exactly breaking news, no, but there's an Avatar connection, so if the world could stop rotating on its axis for a moment... It's called Fine Detail Optical Surveillance, and the military wants Darpa to develop it. Think 3D spy cameras. Attach one to a Predator-type device and the boots on the ground—fresh-faced kids from the corn fields of Iowa—will be able to see the bad guys long before they know what's going on. Woo!

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  • Raytheon’s iPhone app will track enemy combatants in real time

    Raytheon’s iPhone app will track enemy combatants in real time

    Posted on December 16, 2009 | No Comments
    Raytheon, known more often than not in these parts for its ability to zap people at a distance with microwaves, has just announced a little something called One Force Tracker. Essentially an iPhone app, it leverages recent developments in location awareness and social networking to keep tabs on both friends and enemies in the field, displaying positions on maps in real time -- all the while enabling secure communications between soldiers. "If there is a building with known terrorist activities, it could automatically be pushed to the phone when the soldiers get near that area," said Raytheon CTO J. Smart. Of course, there is still quite a bit of work to be done to make this work: iPhones do not have removable batteries, nor do they support multi-tasking, meaning that some sort of ruggedized, battery-powered external case would be necessary to get this battle-ready -- as well some jailbreaking. There's no word on a possible release date yet -- which means, sadly, that it looks like the U.S. Army is stuck with its Celio REDFLYs for the time being.

    Raytheon's iPhone app will track enemy combatants in real time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • U.S. Air Force using the PS3 for ‘urban surveillance’ research

    U.S. Air Force using the PS3 for ‘urban surveillance’ research

    Posted on December 9, 2009 | No Comments
    A few weeks ago word got out that the U.S. Air Force had purchased 2,200 PS3s to throw into a supercomputing cluster. The cell-powered PS3s are to be used for research in “urban surveillance,” what that is.

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  • Navy UAV sets endurance record of 26 hours 1 minute

    Navy UAV sets endurance record of 26 hours 1 minute

    Posted on December 1, 2009 | No Comments
    Twenty-six hours and one minute. That's how long a new, unmanned, experimental Navy aircraft flew through the air during a recent test run. It's called the Ion Tiger. There it is, right there.

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  • New stealth jumpjet starting hover trials

    New stealth jumpjet starting hover trials

    Posted on November 16, 2009 | No Comments
    The Harrier jumpjet is one of the most famous aircraft in the world. Ideal for carrier take off and landings, the jumpjet has been part of the US military arsenal for many years. The problem is that it isn't very fast. Now the next generation of jumpjet is entering testing to see if it measures up.

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  • Meet the men and women behind the drones

    Meet the men and women behind the drones

    Posted on October 14, 2009 | No Comments
    So everyone knows now that the military uses UAVs for actions in the Middle East. What isn't as commonly known, is that the men and women who pilot the remote controlled aircraft do so from the relative comfort of a top secret facility in the Nevada desert. In some ways, it's the ultimate video game.

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  • Preparing for an electromagnetic strike, one Huckabee-hosted conference at a time

    Preparing for an electromagnetic strike, one Huckabee-hosted conference at a time

    Posted on August 24, 2009 | No Comments
    Let's say you're minding your own business. Maybe you're playing WoW, or maybe you're walking the dog. You go about your business, when, suddenly, an electromagnetic pulse strikes, destroying our way of life as we know it. Electronic bank records, traffic lights, netbooks—all gone in a matter of seconds. What to do?

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