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The MXT135 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has a range of roughly 7,800 feet - and is to be deployed in Afghanistan soon. I would call it the "Equalizer." Some call it the "Punisher".

SAN ANTONIO – When Chance Darby received the helmet that saved his life in Afghanistan, he said it successfully stopped an enemy rifle bullet but left him with two big headaches. One headache lasted a few days after the impact from a high-velocity round. The other lasted several weeks as he tried to keep the news of the incident from his mother, Lynlee Darby, and his then-fiancée and now wife, Cheryl. Chance proposed to Cheryl shortly before deploying to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. On May 31, 2012, Taliban ambushed his platoon while it was dismantling an improvised explosive...

Comment is free I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't) Share 51006 117 inShare158 Email Anonymous woman on grey Heather Linebaugh theguardian.com, Sunday 29 December 2013 07.30 EST Jump to comments (2811) Hermes 450 drone An Elbit Systems Hermes 450 drone. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them a...

Advanced Super Hornet Demonstrates Significant Stealth, Range Improvements - Tests prove aircraft will outpace future threats ST. LOUIS, Aug. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- During three weeks of flight testing the Advanced Super Hornet, Boeing [NYSE: BA] and partner Northrop Grumman demonstrated that the fighter can outperform threats for decades to come with improvements that make the jet much harder for radar to detect and give it significantly more combat range. Through 21 flights in St. Louis and Patuxent River, Md., that began Aug. 5, the team tested conformal fuel tanks (CFT), an enclosed weapons pod (EWP), and signature enhancements, each...

Today, off the coast of Virginia on the USS George H.W. Bush, the U.S. Navy successfully landed an X-47B drone aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time. "It isn't very often you get a glimpse of the future," Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said in an official Navy release. The landing of the fighter jet-sized drone, which is larger than the Predator drones common in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, represents a watershed moment in the wielding of unmanned aerial vehicles. "The operational unmanned aircraft soon to be developed have the opportunity to radically change the way presence and...

USS GEORGE H. W. BUSH, at sea (NNS) -- The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator completed its first-ever carrier-based arrested landing on board USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) off the coast of Virginia July 10. "By evolving and integrating new technology like the X-47B and the unmanned aircraft to follow, carriers will remain relevant throughout their 50-year lifespan," said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. Today's demonstration was the first time a tailless, unmanned autonomous aircraft landed on a modern aircraft carrier. This test marks an historic event for naval aviation that Navy leaders believe will impact...

Raytheon ship-defense missile passes Navy testing The Navy has completed the first series of developmental and operational testing of a ship-defense missile system made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems. In at-sea testing of Raytheon’s Rolling Airframe Missile Block 2, the system's missiles engaged two targets in “tactical dual-salvo scenarios” designed to demonstrate the advanced missile's defensive capabilities. The missiles “successfully engaged high-speed, maneuvering and sub-sonic, maneuvering targets,” with all four missiles meeting test objectives, Raytheon said in a news release. Raytheon and its manufacturing partner, RAMSYS of Germany, were awarded the second U.S. Navy RAM Block 2 low-rate production contract...

Widely held as the Holy Grail of weapons design, the Electromagnetic Rail Gun has been in development for more than a century. Now, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the U.S. Navy, it will soon be part of our arsenal. Unconventional, Multifunctional and Motivating The rail gun is marvel of modern warfare. Unlike conventional weapons, which are reliant upon an assortment of chemical propellants, the EMRG does not require rocket fuel, gunpowder, or gas. Instead, electromagnetic energy is used to fire shells. To produce this surge of energy, electricity is poured though a pair of parallel rails and the current...

The creation of the new medal honoring unmanned vehicle pilots and cyber troops, “is a telling and sad commentary on the judgment of those who are responsible for the creation and approval of this award,” Jack Jacobs, Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam veteran, told USNI News on Wednesday.

The Greatest Investment Opportunity Since 1984 Companies / Sector AnalysisMarch 12, 2013 - 06:03 PM GMT By: Investment U Andrew Snyder writes: There are three reasons investors absolutely must have their eye on the world’s booming unmanned aircraft market. Not one of them involves a 13-hour rant by Rand Paul or Obama’s ability to kill American citizens on American soil. But the recent political brouhaha is proof that you need to move. If you’ve followed the press, you’ve undoubtedly heard today’s drone market compared to the computer industry in the early 1980s. In fact, on January 25, Yahoo!ran a headline...

Tuesday was a banner day for Gulf Coast industry as the U.S. Navy announced it awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $71.6 million contract to produce the next generation of Fire Scout unmanned helicopters, assembled in Moss Point. In addition, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Lockheed Martin Corp. will invest $3 million and create 166 new jobs to build tanks for liquefied natural gas at the Michoud Assembly plant in New Orleans, where the space shuttle tanks were built. The initial 88-foot-long tanks will be used to fuel ships and transport fuel. And at Chevron's 2013 Security Analyst Meeting on...

The U.S. Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even sneak up on unsuspecting targets and execute them with lethal precision. The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, has released a computer-animated video outlining the the future capabilities of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). The project promises to revolutionize war by down-sizing the combatants.

'It is extraordinary that doctors were able to do anything for Todd Nelson. The former US Army master sergeant's injuries were so bad the medics thought he would not survive. "I was on my 300th-plus convoy across Kabul, Afghanistan," he recalls. "We were headed home for the night when we passed next to a typical yellow and white sedan. When they saw us getting ready to pass, they flipped the switch. "The blast came in my side of the truck; I was on the passenger side. "It flipped the truck through a brick wall and put shrapnel through my right...

Bell Helicopters' upgraded H-1 generates foreign interest (Reuters) - As U.S. budget pressures mount, the U.S. Marine Corps says growing foreign demand could help drive down the unit cost of its new upgraded H-1 utility and attack helicopters built by Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc (TXT.N). Major General John Croley, assistant deputy commandant for aviation, said the new helicopters had greater range and capabilities that would enhance the Marines' ability to work with allies across the Asia-Pacific region. He said increased interest from countries in Asia and the Middle East could help lower the cost of the new...

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (CBS St. Louis) — Boeing successfully tests a new missile that can take out electronic targets with little collateral damage. The aerospace company tested the microwave missile last week on a two-story building on the Utah Test and Training Range where computers and electronic systems were turned on to gauge the effects of the missile’s radio waves, according to a Boeing press release. The missile, known as CHAMP (Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project), fired a burst of High Powered Microwaves at the building, successfully knocking out the electronic systems and computers, and even taking out...

A number of robots in development for the military are being given increasing amounts of autonomy. The question is now how they will be used. But, despite widespread press about armed drones hunting down terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the increasing use of ground robots to fight roadside bombs, the truth is that most military robots are still pretty dumb. In fact, almost all unmanned systems involve humans in almost every aspect of their operations—it’s just that instead of sitting in a cockpit or behind the wheel of a vehicle, humans are operating the systems from a...

U.S. Army officials announced the winners of its greatest inventions competition Sept. 19.A team of combat veteran non-commissioned officers, as well as U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command field-grade officers, reviewed and voted for the Army Greatest Inventions of 2011. Dale Ormond, director of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, commended the scientists and engineers for their efforts to empower, unburden and protect Soldiers. “The contributions made by these teams promise to improve the well-being of Soldiers and the Army’s capability to contribute to quality of life and our national security,” Ormond said. “All of the nominated inventions...

Contrary to legend, it wasn't the federal government, and the Internet had nothing to do with maintaining communications during a war. A telling moment in the presidential race came recently when Barack Obama said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." He justified elevating bureaucrats over entrepreneurs by referring to bridges and roads, adding: "The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all companies could make money off the Internet." It's an urban legend that the government launched the Internet. The myth is that the Pentagon...

-- Kodak -- the company known for decades for its cameras and film -- this week confirmed it used weapons-grade uranium in an underground lab in upstate New York for upwards of 30 years. A company spokesman and a former scientist for the firm say there was not enough material to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. Former Kodak researcher Albert Filo said the uranium was alloyed with aluminum in plates sealed in sleeves that were not moved for three decades. The amount of fuel was about 3½ pounds, which experts say is less than one-tenth of the amount necessary to...

Boeing shows off new Super Hornet display Boeing is showing off some of the advanced features it is proposing for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Some of these include conformal fuel tanks, an external weapons pod to reduce the jet's radar cross-section, better engines, and a new missile warning system among other improvements. Inside the cockpit (both cockpits in the case of the F-model) is a new single-screen color LCD display. But what is truly impressive is a new 3D situational awareness display mode--it overlays various threats and displays them in an easy to understand graphic. Terrain can be overlaid on...