Gizmodo
military
Posts Tagged “
Military Tech
”
military
military tech
Review: Generation Kill—The Iraq War, Batteries Not Included
We cover a lot of high-end military gear here on Giz, but just one of the things that Generation Kill, a great new miniseries that premiered on HBO last night, does well is remind everyone that in the real world, the military is not all UAVs and lasers just yet. Instead of morphing robots to peer under doors, microwave insanity guns or even current-gen tech like Blue Force GPS consoles in every Humvee, the Marines of the First Recon Battalion depicted in the show are lucky if they can get batteries for their nightvision goggles. More »
bombs
New Army Cluster Bomb Rains Down Thousands of Deadly Darts
Cluster bombs are increasingly frowned upon—there's an international agreement banning them, though the US hasn't signed on—in part because even low dud rates leave lots of little unexploded bombs scattered over a wide area. An alternative developed by the army is a GPS-guided version of the Multiple Launch Rocket system with a payload of thousands of small darts, or as the army calls them, "kinetic energy rods." The warhead spins as it's launched, so it breaks open at high altitude, evenly raining down thousands of unique metal snowflakes of death, using straight up gravity and aerodynamics for its killing force, no explosions required. Um, I guess that's better than having a real cluster bomb dropped on you? [Danger Room]
military tech
World's Smallest UAV Weighs 10 Grams, Flaps Like a Bird
AreoVironment is building the world's smallest UAV, called the Nano Air Vehicle, that has moving wings instead of a propeller or engine. DARPA has given the company $636,000 and six months to demonstrate an ultra-small UAV that will be under three inches long and under 10 grams. More »
robots
Combat Robots Not Being Withdrawn From Iraq Says Company, Human Masters Safe
Remember those gun-toting robots that were being pulled out of Iraq because they were moving when they weren't commanded? Well, according to their manufacturer it's all "an urban legend" — the SWORD robot is not going to spin around and point its gun at friendlies... it's fine'n'dandy and still deployed in the field. Phew. Looks like our soldiers are safe from a robot uprising for now. But where did the original story come from? UPDATED More »
robots
Combat Robot Attempts Rebellion Against Human Masters in Iraq, Army Pulls Plug for 10-20 Years
The army's machine-gun wielding, insurgent-slaying robot SWORDS is no longer spraying foes with hot doom in Iraq. Actually, it never got the chance to notch a single frag, and never will. Apparently, there was an incident where "the gun started moving when it was not intended to move," meaning it totally pointed somewhere it wasn't supposed to—like at friendlies, which resulted in recall from the field and might've set the program back 10-20 years, according to the Army's Program Executive Officer for Ground Forces, Kevin Fahey. More »
crusher
DARPA Robot Crusher Truck Earns Its Name
There isn't anyone inside this six-and-half-ton beast, getting off on smashing through crappy 80s cars. No, the Army's latest baby, built by Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Engineering Center, is a robot. The Crusher navigates (and destroys) autonomously and will climb four-foot "steps" as easy as it tears up a hill. Apparently other vehicles in their Future Combat System family will take after this big bad monster truck, officially bringing the Army into the business of wrecking ass. With robots. [Danger Room, Vid via IEEE]
terminator
DARPA Building Neuromorphic Brain on a Chip (Paging Sarah Connor)
DARPA's brain-on-a-chip project (cleverly titled SyNAPSE, or Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) sounds straight out of Cyberdyne's portfolio: They want to "develop a brain inspired electronic 'chip' that mimics that function, size, and power consumption of a biological cortex." That whole neuromorphic adaptive business sounds a whole lot like the T-800's neural net processor, don't it? Here's the scary manifesto that puts us on the path to Judgment Day. More »
weapons
Divine Thunderbolt Bunker Buster: Bye Bye Mole People
The Air Force's old bunker buster, BLU-113, was a bunch of explosives crammed inside of an old howitzer barrel. Its latest instrument of boom, the BLU-122, uses a new a steel shell with a hardened nose and 780lbs of thermobaric explosive to pound through 28 feet of concrete or 120 feet of dirt like styrofoam, with 70 percent more explosive power. If that's not the ticket to scattering your bits everywhere, they've also got a bouncy bomb. More »
military tech
