Defense

The M76 is the “weapon that earned the honor of being the first zombie apocalypse gun,” writes War is Boring, which looks at the peculiar history of the submachine gun that has been the firearm of choice in multiple films, including The Omega Man and The Dark Knight.

Soldiers Describe How DARPA Smartphones Save Lives in Battle

The average pedestrian walks around with more sophisticated navigation and communication technology in his pocket than our soldiers have on the battlefield. That’s why the military is working hard on developing a battle-ready smartphone that would bring our troops up to speed. According to the soldiers who’ve tested the Pentagon’s prototypes, the tech can’t come…

Why Do We Build Walls Around Our Cities?

At almost the instant when humans started building cities, we figured out ways to put walls around them. The often violent history behind those walls is still affecting urban life today, in ways you may not realize. Illustration by Mark Molnar In the early 1960s, eminent scholar Lewis Mumford published a massive tome called The…

A Map Of The U.S. Military’s Expanding Operations In Africa

While much of our attention is focused on ISIS and the Middle East, a closer look at the news cycle during the past two days reveals the extent to which the U.S. military has expanded its presence in Africa, where it is providing support for French counter-terrorism operations against militant Islamist groups. As the Washington…

The Loyal Dogs Who Served Alongside Human Soldiers In War

Both cats and dogs have served as mascots and pets during wartime, but while cats were useful for pest control, dogs had a rather different set of duties, including tracking, scouting, serving as sentries, and carrying messages into battle. Here are some of the animal soldiers who served as man’s best friend in war. https://gizmodo.com/a-gallery-of-cats-who-served-in-world-war-i-1624713212…

Americans shouldn’t panic about speculation that ISIS is planning an imminent terrorist attack in the U.S., advises the Truman National Security Project. Despite alarmist reports, the main concern is not a coordinated attack, but that a “lone wolf” sympathizer within the U.S. might act on their own.

Video: Israel’s Iron Dome intercepting 15 rockets at once

Here’s Israel’s Iron Dome chasing down 15 rockets in the air at one time and well, it’s crazy. Recent footage of the Iron Dome shows the defense system working and it’s like a firework show mixed with an air chase sequence that eerily resembles smokey tentacles reaching out to the sky. The future is scary.…

Secrets of the Manhattan Project Leaked 1500 Times During World War II

The World War II program to develop an atomic bomb was the largest secret project ever undertaken by the U.S. government. But newly-declassified documents reveal how it hard it was to keep things secret as the weapon neared completion. Information leaks were everywhere, even in church sermons. Trinity Test plutonium bomb image courtesy of Truman…

Which Lucky State Will Get a Useless $4 Billion Defense System?

At the urging of Congress, military officials have begun considering East Coast sites for an anti-ballistic missile system that doesn’t work and the Pentagon doesn’t want. But members of Congress can’t let such details stand in the way. Now states are vying to score the $4 billion allocated for this dubious effort. The missile defense…

U.S. Military Veterans Criticize Police Tactics In Ferguson

Recent events in Ferguson have prompted a national debate about “over-militarized” police forces that have acquired sophisticated, high-tech Pentagon equipment — including drones — through Homeland Security funding. But, how do actual military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan assess the situation? [Image: Department of Defense.] Veterans who were interviewed by the Washington Post…

Are Millennials Compatible With U.S. Military Culture?

An editorial in a magazine published by the U.S. Naval Institute grouses about the behavior of Millennials: their constant texting ignores the chain of command and they’re way too laid back to serve in the military. A Millennial naval officer has responded online—and he blew those complaints out of the water. The opening salvo in…

Why We Need To Stop Saying Cyberattacks Are An “Existential” Threat

Leaders from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the FBI and other government agencies warn that the U.S. is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could threaten the country’s very existence. But one adviser to the White House argues that such statements exaggerate the danger and distract the government from the actual risks. In an interview with Inside Cybersecurity,…

The shock waves of IED blasts can damage the eyes of troops, causing retinal displacement — even if soldiers are not injured by shrapnel or debris, according to a new study. Ocular injuries account for 13% of all battlefield injuries, and researchers hope that this data will eventually lead to better protective eyeware.

Federal Employee Gets Fired After Writing An Article Criticizing Nukes

For 17 years, James Doyle was a nuclear policy specialist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Then he wrote an article that made the case for getting rid of nuclear weapons. After that, his computer was seized, he was accused of releasing classified information, and then he was fired. What happened? Top image: French Test,…

Hacks Stole Data From Companies That Built Israel’s Main Defense System

Israel currently tries to protect itself from a barrage of rocket attacks using its “Iron Dome” missile shield—but Krebs on Security reveals that hackers have stolen sensitive documents from the three Israeli defense contractors responsible for building it. Krebs reports that hacks in 2011 and 2012 were carried out against the three top Israeli defense…

Nearly 750,000 U.S. Weapons Are Unaccounted For In Afghanistan

A recently discovered database failure is certain to have lethal consequences: Many of the 747,000 weapons that the Defense Department provided to the Afghan National Security Forces were not properly labeled and tracked—which means that insurgents or arms dealers could easily get hold of them. According to a report published by the Special Inspector General…

John Oliver Reminds Us How Badly We Take Care of Our Nukes

If you’ve been paying attention since, well, since the Cold War started, you know that the United States has an insanely huge number of nuclear weapons. And if you’ve been paying even closer attention, you’ll know that the military is not very good at keeping track of them. In fact, it’s laughably bad at. Enter…

Play Spacewar!, The Pentagon-Funded Video Game From 1962

The launch of Sputnik prompted a U.S. government spending spree to achieve technological dominance over the Soviets. Among the recipients of this largesse were MIT engineers, who designed a computer simulation called Spacewar! Inspired by the sci-fi books of E.E. Smith, it was the world’s first videogame. The guys who created this simulation — using…

Secret Tunnels in Warfare Are Less of a Threat Than You Think

Israeli troops claim that they have discovered more secret tunnels that Hamas is using to get into the country. Though the tunnels sound terrifying, military strategy experts say they have little value when it comes to battlefield results. Image via Israel Defense Forces In the Washington Post this weekend, history professor Gerard Degroot explains that…

Why Can’t We Protect Commercial Planes From Attacks?

Last week’s downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over the disputed territory of Eastern Ukraine has set off worldwide outcries against the conflict, and calls to better defend commercial airlines from missile attack. But is it even possible to defend civilian jets against military-grade weapons? To understand why it’s so difficult to defend civilian planes,…