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Navy fires up fully-weaponized railgun prototype At the end of last month, the Navy got an early Valentine's Day present in the form of a prototype fully-weaponized naval railgun. And on Tuesday, it released a video of its first shot, which we're officially filing under "things not to get in the way of." This prototype weapon, developed by BAE Systems, fires inert aluminum slugs out of a 40-foot barrel using nothing but megajoules of raw electricity. The giant gout of flame you see in the picture (below) comes from a combination of about a million amps of energy, the hypersonic...

NEW YORK — The seafaring boat houses a coyote, a silver fox and a creature dubbed "Big Eyes" — but it isn't a modern-day Noah's Ark. Called the Star Fish, this little ship carries the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Afloat Lab onboard to show off all the latest technological wizardry the U.S. military can use — in the Iraq war, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world. The Coyote, Silver Fox and "Big Eyes" are the names of two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (search) and a giant set of long-range binoculars, respectively. They're in New York Harbor for the Navy's...

Dogged by controversies, Cornerstone eyes future By JERRY LYNOTT jlynott@leader.net TECHNOLOGY WILKES-BARRE - The last of its federal contracts awarded, Cornerstone Technologies has warehoused its equipment and idled its staff. The future of the company - held up as an example of the high-tech firms Northeastern Pennsylvania wants to attract - now depends upon its own success in the marketplace. But the head of the research and development company that has received more than $9 million in government funds since 1999 insists Cornerstone is still viable. "Nothing has changed. The company is ongoing," said Peter Kanjorski, president and chief executive...