Turkey, Iran, and Iraq adopted a coordinated, aggressive force posture in retaliation for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum on September 25, 2017. The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) conducted military exercises on the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan with the Turkish Armed Forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Iranian Artesh. Turkey and Iran implemented …
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me For the third time in three years, expensive NSA (Nationa Security Agency) security has been undone by one of its own contract employees simply carrying those secrets out the door. Following up on the fools and shame saying, I think if you are …
The US Senate’s version of the annual defense bill provides $200 million for rapid prototyping of directed energy weapons. There’s no shortage of U.S. military interest in battlefield lasers and other directed-energy weapons. From truck-mounted lasers to high-powered microwaves that take down small drones, the Army, Navy, and Air Force are all exploring the possibilities. …
The Bell V-280 Valor is a third-generation tiltrotor aircraft being developed by Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin for the United States Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. Video was recently released where it was shown in a ground test. The V-280 will be twice as fast as an Apache helicopter and have about three to …
General Atomics has acquired Syntronics, a developer and manufacturer of custom electromechanical technologies including projectile and missile guidance systems, in-flight and ground-based shock-resistant instrumentation, and related software technologies. The acquired company will become part of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS). Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS, said of the acquisition of Syntronics: “Their level of …
There has been a script written for an Edge of Tomorrow sequel (or prequel). The issue now is getting the scheduling to work out between Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and director Doug Liman. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com …
China’s j-20 stealth fighter is operational. It has small wings and is not optimized to beat other advanced fighters like the US F-22 raptor. Short-range tactical fighters like the F-22, F-35 and J-20 are ill-suited for operations in the Western Pacific where distances are vast and bases are scarce. The same geographic constraints also apply …
A new radar sensor that can capture real-time video through clouds has been developed and demonstrated by the U.S. military. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, said the sensor is part of its Video Synthetic Aperture Radar, or ViSAR, program that recently completed flight testing. “The recent flight tests of the ViSAR …
Bell Helicopter is so confident in their new V-280 tilt-rotor prototype that they want the Pentagon to accelerate the Future Vertical Lift program by five to eight years. This would pull production of the first future helicopter replacement, twice as fast and longer-ranged replacement for Army UH-60s and Marine UH-1s, from the 2030s to as …
A subscale demonstrator of the SR-72 hypersonic spyplane was reportedly spied at Lockheed’s facilities in California. A proposed hypersonic reconnaissance and strike aircraft, the SR-72 would serve as a replacement for the famed SR-71 Blackbird, which was retired by the Air Force back in 1998. The SR-71 Blackbird could fly at 2200 mph (over 3 …
The French President called for the introduction of EU identity cards, a shared defense budget and a European military intervention force. Speaking at Paris-Sorbonne University, he also proposed a shared budget for eurozone countries and an EU-wide asylum agency to help tackle the migration crisis. He said: “What Europe is missing today is a common …