military blog

Liquid Metal Antennas will adapt antenna capabilities on demand and be used for wearables

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US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) researchers recently demonstrated that nontoxic liquid metals can create multifunctional, reconfigurable electronics and flexible power connections for nontraditional electronics. The advance may help lead to self-healing electronics, shape-shifting antennas and clothing woven with conductive threads to electronically connect devices. Christopher Tabor, a research scientist in the nanoelectronics branch of …

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New ramjet engine could triple the range of Chinese missiles and make them hypersonic

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China’s developing a hypersonic weapon that has triple the range of existing Chinese air-to-air missiles. The premise: a ramjet engine that can turn already deadly missiles into weapons that have greater range, maneuverability, and speed. In a May 31 report, the Science and Technology Daily announced that the 4th Research Institute of the China Aerospace …

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Lockheed will build and fly SR-72 mach 6 prototype in the early 2020s

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Lockheed Martin reports they plan to fly a flight research vehicle (FRV) of the mach 6 hypersonic SR-72 in the early 2020s. They have plans to build an FRV the size of an F-22 that can be flown either manually or remotely. Lockheed Martin reports they plan to fly a flight research vehicle (FRV) of …

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F35 oxygen deprivation of pilots forces grounding of 55 jets

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The U.S. Air Force has grounded 55 of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at Arizona’s Luke Air Force base following five incidents in which pilots experienced symptoms of oxygen deprivation. The pilots “reported physiological incidents while flying” but a backup oxygen system turned on, allowing them to land safely. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist …

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DARPA making progress to reducing power usage in IOT sensors by 1000 times

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DARPA’s Near Zero Power RF and Sensor Operations (N-ZERO) program has been working to overcome the power limitations of persistent sensing by developing wireless, event-driven sensing capabilities that would allow physical, electromagnetic and other sensors to remain dormant—effectively asleep yet aware—until an event of interest awakens them. To achieve these goals, the program intends to …

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Softbank buys Boston Dynamics a leading robotics company

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A subsidiary of SoftBank has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL, GOOG). The transaction aligns with SoftBank’s investments in paradigm-shifting technologies and its vision of catalyzing the next wave of smart robotics. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO …

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DARPA Hive processor could boost computing efficiency by 1000 times

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DARPA is funding a non-von-Neumann processor called a HIVE — Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit with $80 million. HIVE is not von Neumann because of the sparseness of its data and its ability to simultaneously perform different processes on different areas of memory simultaneously,” Trung said. “This non-von-Neumann approach allows one big map that can be …

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Biggest US shipbuilder working with Boeing on large unmanned underwater drones

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Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Huntington Ingalls Industries [NYSE: HII] are teaming on the design and production of Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) in support of the U.S. Navy’s Extra Large UUV program. “This partnership provides the Navy a cost-effective, low-risk path to meet the emergent needs that prompted the Navy’s Advanced Undersea Prototyping program,” said Darryl …

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The Early Age of Hypersonic Weapons

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The continuing successful tests of Hypersonic missiles and anti-missiles by Russia, China and the United States will see a few dozen mostly short range hypersonic missiles and anti-missiles deployed by 2020. These will mainly be mach 5 to mach 10 missiles with ranges of 250 to 600 miles. Longer ranges and larger numbers of hypersonic …

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US Army will use Israeli Trophy anti missile system

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The US Army has selected the Israeli Trophy APS anti-missile system for the M1 Tank and other military vehicles. The Trophy system, designed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is the only APS in testing that has seen combat and actually defeated advanced anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) threats. The Army is also evaluating the Israeli-made Iron …

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Lockheed confident of being able to build a 4600 mph spyplane drone in 2018

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Lockheed Martin says hypersonic technologies are now sufficiently mature to enable progress towards a flight demonstrator. In March 2016, Lockheed CEO Hewson stated that the company was on the verge of a technological breakthrough that would allow its conceptual SR-72 hypersonic plane to reach Mach 6. A hypersonic demonstrator aircraft the size of an F-22 …

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