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The second-highest-ranking general in the U.S. military on Tuesday warned lawmakers against equipping the armed forces with autonomous weapons systems that humans could lose control of and advocated for keeping the "ethical rules of war" in place. In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Gen. Paul Selva responded to a question from Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) about a Defense Department directive that requires a human operator to be involved in the decision-making process when it comes to taking lives with autonomous weapons systems. Selva warned lawmakers that the military should keep "the ethical rules of war in place...

An approach to machine learning inspired by the human brain is about to revolutionize street search. Even if the cop who pulls you over doesn’t recognize you, the body camera on his chest just might in the future. Device-maker Motorola announced Monday that would partner with artificial intelligence software startup Neurala to build “real-time learning for a person of interest search” on Motorola products such as the Si500 body camera for police, the AI firm announced in a press release today.

The Air Force is updating its awards to recognize drone pilots and hackers Christopher Woody Jun. 23, 2017 US airmen tasked with jobs like surveillance and cyber operations have a growing role on the battlefield, even though they are often physically distant from it. To ensure that kind of work is recognized, the Air Force has introduced new hardware for its service men and women. "As the impact of remote operations on combat continues to increase, the necessity of ensuring those actions are distinctly recognized grows," Defense Department officials said in a memo published on January 7, 2016.

It might resemble something out of Star Wars, but this is the prototype for a combat suit that Russia hopes will give its soldiers the edge on the battlefields of the future. The high-tech item includes an exo-skeleton, or outer layer, designed to boost strength and stamina and a layer of body armour to shield the wearer from bullets. The all-black kit also has a Stormtrooper-style helmet with a tinted glass visor and a mini task light poking out of the side. It was put on display on Thursday at the National University of Science and Technology in Moscow. A...

South Korea has successfully fired a fourth prototype Hyunmoo-2C short-range ballistic missile, which can reach any target in North Korea. The country’s new President Moon Jae-in lauded the test, which follows months of North Korean missile launches and escalating rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula, as in line with his administration’s foreign policy plans. On June 23, 2017, the South Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) conducted the test at its own facility approximately 120 miles southwest of Seoul. Video of launch showed the system’s standard semi-containerized truck-mounted launcher onboard either a ship or a sea platform. ADD, the country’s state-run...

Air Force cadet Hayley Weir had an idea that turned out to be a game changer. "It was just the concept of going out there and stopping a bullet with something that we had made in a chemistry lab." The 21-year-old Weir approached Air Force Academy Assistant Professor Ryan Burke with the idea. He was skeptical. "I said, 'I'm not really sure this is going to work, the body armor industry is a billion-plus-dollar industry," he noted. Weir's idea was to combine anti-ballistic fabric with what's known as a shear thickening fluid to create a less heavy material to use...

A gooey substance normally wouldn’t seem like it could stop a bullet, but an Air Force Academy cadet has created just that. Air Force Academy Cadet 1st Class Hayley Weir created a goo-like substance that can stop bullets. Cadet 1st Class Hayley Weir’s interest in bullet-stopping materials was piqued when she took a chemistry class at the academy in 2014. The class was given three materials to combine in a way that could stop a bullet. “Up to that point, it was the coolest thing I’d done as a cadet,” Weir, a senior at the academy, told Air Force Times....

South Korea has developed a new pre-emptive strike weapon in the face of North Korean threats. The weapon, a tactical ship-to-ground guided missile, will enhance South Korea’s ability to strike North Korea’s critical military facilities in the event of a crisis on the peninsula. South Korea will begin mass-producing the missiles next year, reports the Yonhap News Agency, citing the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the South Korean arms procurement agency. The missiles, which can be fired using either inclined or vertical launch systems, will boost the firepower of the South’s next-generation frigates. The inclined launch units will be used...

On April 13, 2017, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb known as the Mother of All Bombs or MOAB for short was used for the first time in combat. The largest non-nuclear weapon in current inventory was used against an ISIS target in a remote part of far northeast Afghanistan. The target in question was reportedly an ISIS complex of tunnels, caves and a camp where personnel were assembling. The MOAB is a large-yield conventional (non-nuclear) precision guided bomb, developed for the United States Air Force by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory. At the...

Known as the 'flying gun', the A-10 Warthog plane was a hero during Operating Desert Storm – but has since been deemed vulnerable and costly to operate. Now, a Minnesota-based startup has unveiled designs for a new attack plane called the 'Machete' that consists of a new metal foam developed in conjunction with the US Department of Energy. The metal foam is lightweight and strong - and is capable of stopping bullets and other projectiles in much less space than traditional armor, while the plane boasts the same 30mm cannon as the Warthog it could replace.

The Pentagon has carried out what it is calling one of its most significant tests of autonomous systems under development by the Department of Defense with the demonstration of the world’s largest micro-drone swarms at China Lake, California.

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...