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Alex LockieJanuary 11, 2017 USAF In another positive sign for the beloved A-10, Air Force maintainers at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona have outfitted the Warthog with an upgrade for combat search and rescue missions (CSAR). Dubbed the lightweight airborne recovery system, the upgrade helps A-10 pilots "communicate more effectively with individuals on the ground such as downed pilots, pararescuemen and joint terminal attack controllers," according to an Air Force statement. Of all the fixed-wing aircraft in the US Air Force's inventory, no plane carries out CSAR missions like the A-10. CSAR missions jump off with little warning and...

When last we heard from the USS Zumwalt, the Navy had admitted that the brand-new stealth destroyer couldn't fire because its custom ammo was too expensive. Now, the service may have settled on a replacement to get the vessel and its brethren back in business. The U.S. Navy says its Zumwalt-class destroyers, state-of-the-art ships designed to bombard targets on land, could be equipped with the Excalibur precision-guided artillery round originally developed for land forces. The three Zumwalt-class land attack destroyers were designed around the Advanced Gun System (AGS). The 155-millimeter AGS gun, paired with the brand-new Long Range Land Attack...

PARIS --- After spending billions of dollars, the US Navy has finally abandoned the Littoral Combat Ship concept, saying it will turn the first four LCSs into training ships and that all future vessels will be equipped for a single combat mission. Although deliberately worded to minimize its import, the US Navy statement below is a clear acknowledgement that the LCS concept has been an abysmal failure. But, even as it looks to mitigate the disastrous effects of having ordered a dozen LCS at once, before checking whether they performed as claimed (they have not), the Navy makes no mention...

After photos leaked of Northrop Grumman and BAE System’s new T-X trainer offering, Boeing and Saab revealed their own T-X sneak peak this week. A few shadowy glimpses of the trainer appeared over four videos posted on Boeing’s new T-X website over the weekend. The clean sheet design has two engine inlets, a high mounted wing and a conventional, vertical tail. That design marks a departure from Boeing’s original V-tail concept the company put forth before partnering with Saab. The new aircraft’s design is also unique from the Boeing T-45 Goshawk used by the US Navy. Boeing’s T-X bid not...

The most expensive warship ever built has been delayed from hitting the front line because it is reportedly not ready for battle. The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford Navy supercarrier - the first of three in its class with a total cost of $43 billion - could potentially struggle with planes landing and taking off, moving military weapons and being able to successfully defend itself, a memo obtained by Bloomberg News reads. The memo allegedly states 'poor or unknown reliability issues' were identified in a letter dated June 28. 'These four systems affect major areas of flight operations,' Defense...

Army Special Operations Command is dumping the Android tactical smartphone for an iPhone for better situational awareness. Photo: Vesper Case UK. U.S. Army Special Operations Command is dumping its Android tactical smartphone for an iPhone model. The iPhone 6S will become the end-user device for the iPhone Tactical Assault Kit – special-operations-forces version Army’s Nett Warrior battlefield situational awareness tool, according to an Army source, who is not authorized to speak to the media. The iTAC will replace the Android Tactical Assault Kit. The iPhone is “faster; smoother. Android freezes up” and has to be restarted too often, the source...

An artist's conception of the indigenous fighter jet, dubbed the KF-X / Courtesy of Korea Aerospace Industries The nation's heavy dependence on U.S. weapons has reemerged in its indigenous fighter jet development project as the state arms procurement agency and the aircraft maker are apparently seeking steady progress by using familiar U.S. products rather than choosing a new path. But critics are raising concerns that the overdependence on the Washington's products and technologies could put Korea into an unfavorable position in the future when exporting jets. The so-called KF-X project is aimed at locally developing twin-engine combat jets equipped with...

The US Navy has started to receive its first power pulse modules, in container form, to power its experimental particle railgun, the Raytheon Company said in a press release on Monday. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Raytheon's pulse power container design was developed for a $10 million contract with Naval Sea Systems Command to develop a pulsed power system, which will enable land or sea-based projectiles to reach great distances without the use of an explosive charge or rocket motor, the release added. US missile defense © Flickr/ U.S. Missile Defense Agency Reliance on Kinetic Missile Defense Systems Puts US at Disadvantage...

DAHLGREN, Va.—A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense. Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole. The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep...

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works delivered the first Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer to the Navy on Friday, Naval Sea Systems Command announced. The delivery of the 16,000-ton Zumwalt (DDG-1000) optimized for stealth and operations close to shore follows last month’s successful acceptance trials of the ship overseen by the service’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), Navy officials told USNI News. INSURV evaluated the ship’s hull, mechanical and engineering (HM&E) systems during the underway testing period last month. “Zumwalt’s crew has diligently trained for months in preparation of this day and they are ready and excited to take charge of...

AFS's concept would employ the same 4,000 HP engine used by the V-22 to generate 3 MW of electrical power that will drive the 24 ductless fans spread across its rear wings and front canards. These fans will rotate, as you can see in the image above, enabling the X-Plane to seamlessly transition from a hover to forward flight. "This VTOL X-plane won't be in volume production in the next few years but is important for the future capabilities it could enable," DARPA program manager, Ashish Bagai, said. "Imagine electric aircraft that are more quiet, fuel-efficient and adaptable and are...

After spending the past decade studying ground-nesting wasps a team of researchers from the Australian National University believe that they've unlocked the secret to the insects' uncanny homing abilities -- one they hope can be applied to future UAV development. Modern, autonomous UAVs have to be laden with high resolution cameras, GPS radios and a slew of other high-tech gadgetry in order to know where they are and where they're going. Wasps, on the other hand, only need their compound eyes and a daily refresher flight.

A CIA secret weapon used for assassination shoots a small poison dart to cause a heart attack, as explained in Congressional testimony in the video. The dart from this secret CIA weapon can penetrate clothing and leave nothing but a tiny red dot on the skin. On penetration of the deadly dart, the individual targeted for assassination may feel as if bitten by a mosquito, or they may not feel anything at all. The poisonous dart completely disintegrates upon entering the target. The lethal poison then rapidly enters the bloodstream causing a heart attack. Once the damage is done, the...

ARLINGTON: New threats from Russia and China mean the Army must take on new missions — but it’s got almost no new money so the Army is looking at ways to modify existing systems to do some radically new things. So imagine howitzers firing precision-guided cannon shells to shoot cruise missiles out of the sky or to sink ships on the South China Sea. Imagine networking existing sensors in new ways to counter Russian heavy jamming. Imagine eight-wheel-drive Stryker armored vehicles acting as mobile anti-aircraft guns. “One of the highlights that I was trying to emphasize is repurposing existing capability,”...

Designed to handle the harsh and unforgiving Russian environment, SHERP is an amphibious truck with self-inflating tires that can go across land, water and everything in between-including obstacles 70 cm (27.5 in) high. Based out of Saint Petersburg, the first SHERP prototype was built in 2012 by Aleksey Garagashyan. Four years later, SHERP is now available for sale to the public with based models starting just under US$50,000. According to Jalopnik: It weighs just 2,866 pounds dry, so while it might only have a 44.3 horsepower 1.5 liter Kubota V1505 four-cylinder diesel linked to a five-speed manual, it will still...

... The first report on the incident, released Monday, noted the loss. “A post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition, and communication gear are accounted for minus two SIM cards that appear to have been removed from two handheld satellite phones,” said the report from the U.S. Central Command. ... “Those SIM cards don’t just contain the satellite links,” he said. “They also include encryption codes, and otherwise unpublished data relating to specific orders and personnel,” he added. The former naval officer said those SIM cards should not have been allowed to fall into Iranian hands. .......

On 16 January 1991, seven Boeing B-52Gs fully loaded with AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missiles took flight from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana on a top-secret mission to destroy targets inside Iraq. Those 35h missions were the first combat sorties of Operation Desert Storm. Lesser known is that the mission, dubbed Secret Squirrel, also marked the combat debut of the AGM-86C, with 35 weapons fired and 85-95% of targets successfully destroyed, according to the US air force. A derivative of the nuclear-tipped AGM-86B, the B-52G would not have been deployed if only armed with nuclear cruise missiles and unguided bombs. Now,...

It was a big year for military aircraft advances. Here’s a look back at four of those – the F-16 Viper, Marine Corps’ King Stallion Helo, a new stealth bomber and fifth generation fighter F-35.

The Pentagon has partnered with Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and 159 other private companies and universities to develop wearable tech for military use. "I've been pushing the Pentagon to think outside our five-sided box and invest in innovation here in Silicon Valley and in tech communities across the country," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at Moffett Airfield near Mountain View, Calif. on Friday. "Now we're taking another step forward." Carter announced the creation of a new institute in San Jose called "Flexible Hybrid Electronic Institute." The institute will work to develop...

In a recent WIRED article, security researchers Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger tackled just that issue. The wife and husband duo purchased two $13,000 TrackingPoint rifles and spent the last year reverse engineering and hacking the rifles’ computers. The two plan to present their research at the Black Hat hacker conference in two weeks, according to the article. TrackingPoint bills itself as a company comprised of “lifetime NRA members and engineers.” The products sold on its website seem standard enough when it comes to a gun company: bolt-action rifles, semi-automatic carbines, etc. The “5.56mm semi-auto,” basically a M16-type rifle, costs...