Free Republic

The Marine Corps has officially begun procurement of the Army's Modular Handgun System to replace its existing pistol arsenal, the service announced on Tuesday. The M18 service pistol — a compact variant of the striker-fired M17 that, based on Sig Sauer's P320, the Army adopted under the MHS program in 2017 — will finally see fielding this fiscal year, according to Marine Corps Systems Command. MARCORSYSCOM spokesman Maj. Ken Kunze had previously pegged the start of fielding at some time during the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, with a target completion date in "late 2023." The M18 will replace...

A Chicago-based company will open a Birmingham plant, creating 100 jobs. Zekelman Industries said its Z Modular division will take the 106,000-square-foot former O’Neal Steel building in Valley East Industrial Park. It will be the first U.S. manufacturing plant for the company formed less than a year ago from VectorBloc Corp., Z Modular Fabrication and Connexio Building Systems Inc. “The city of Birmingham is proud to welcome Z Modular to our community,” Birmingham Mayor William Bell said. “This company represents the future of the construction industry. Z Modular choosing our region for its first U.S. plant signifies Birmingham’s importance to...

Home > News Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor cooled by sodium. Reactors cooled by liquid metals such as sodium or lead have a unique set of abilities that may again make them significant players in the nuclear industry. At the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, a team led by senior nuclear engineer James Sienicki has designed a new small reactor cooled by lead—the Sustainable Proliferation-resistance Enhanced Refined Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor, or...

The nuclear power industry that reawakened only a couple years ago is getting a booster shot these days from much-smaller reactors that would be far more affordable. Once again, Westinghouse Electric Co. is at the core of the trend. It's designing a small nuclear reactor the size of a bus that can be built in a factory and shipped to a power plant. It would generate up to one-quarter the power of current nuclear reactors, but cost about one-tenth as much. Small modular reactors, as they're called, are being designed by several companies that could be installed as early as...

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2006 – New, modular brigade combat team units accompanied the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division on its third tour to Afghanistan, the division's commander told Pentagon reporters today. "This marks the first deployment of the Army's modular force to Operation Enduring Freedom," Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley said from Afghanistan during a satellite news conference. Freakley is also commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, based at Bagram Air Base. The task force has more than 15,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines and about 4,300 coalition members, including Canadian, British, Dutch and Romanian forces. The 10th's brigade...