Military Tech

Zephyr Shatters Robot Plane Endurance Record

The U.S. military wants to have robotic eyes in the sky constantly roving and watching what goes on below, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They might achieve that capability very soon, as a test vehicle called the Zephyr just obliterated the old endurance record for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), nearly tripling…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 27

U.S. Navy Developing Lasers and Huge Guns

The year is 2019. The destroyer U.S.S. Mason patrols enemy waters, and is suddenly faced with a barrage of incoming missiles. Almost instantly, dozens of brightly colored lasers beam out of the Mason, intercepting the missiles and destroying them harmlessly in the air. Then a massive deck-mounted gun turns and takes aim at an onshore…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 20

Five Guns for Wars of the Future, Not One a Death Ray

At some point in humanity’s future, our military forces are going to have to fight alien invaders, angry robots or hordes of zombies. Ultimately, a bunch of infantry grunts are going to have to hold the line against the onslaught. And they’re going to need guns. Awesome guns. What have the arms merchants of the…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 13

U.S. Military To Be 30 Percent Robotic In Twelve Years

Click to viewThe U.S. military is being taken over by robots. Clearing buildings, recovering unexploded munitions and searching for bombs are some of the deadliest tasks a soldier can face in Iraq, and most of them can be done by robots. Plus, the Pentagon has plans to introduce even more robotic troops into military ranks…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 6

Good News: The Air Force Wants a Holodeck

Finally, we can all agree on something: the Air Force wants a holodeck. I want a holodeck. You want a holodeck. Luckily for us, the Air Force is a good party to have overlapping interests with, technology wise; they have the billions to do it, and according to a recent request for proposals, are now…

Tech News John Mahoney Aug 4

Blackswift Will Be the First War Machine In Space

Development of the U.S.’s first hypersonic military space plane, the HTV-3X Blackswift, is zooming forward, with plans for Boeing and Lockheed to work together on the project. When it’s ready to fly (possibly as soon as 2010), the Blackswift will give the U.S. the ability to send a missile to any spot on Earth within…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 31

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…

Television John Mahoney Jul 14

Sarah Connor Has Failed — the British Just Built Skynet

With the launch of a new communications satellite, the British military has completed a highly advanced network that will allow robotic military units to be controlled at long range. Sound vaguely familiar? They actually named the thing Skynet. When the T-1000s come knocking, keep an eye out for the “Made in UK” sticker. Skynet 5…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jun 13

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…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan May 30

Boeing Developing Planes with Frickin Laser Beams

As far as air-to-ground weapons go, bombs are effective but not known for their precision. That’s why Boeing is hard at work on a project the U.S. military has long lusted after: plane-mounted lasers. Once we get these things operational, putting your munitions factories next to your day-care centers isn’t going to work anymore, and…

io9 Ed Grabianowski May 30

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. The concept for the project came about through…

Tech News Adrian Covert May 29

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…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Apr 15

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…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Apr 10

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…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Feb 21

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…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Feb 12

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,…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Feb 4

RAF Pilots To Get New Hardware, Stay On Target

While America’s military may have been the first to steal the term Star Wars for their own use, Britain’s Royal Air Force are the first to design their hardware on Luke Skywalker’s fashion sense: Pilots flying the next generation of jet fighters will use futuristic, Star Wars-style helmets, the Ministry of Defence has revealed. The…

io9 Grae Nov 13

Personal Sniper Detector Hears Better Than Superman

Part of a $1.4 billion counter-sniping package the Pentagon’s asking for, which includes vehicle-mounted and UAV sniper detectors, is a pocket-sized unit that weights only a pound. The Ears 100 by QinetiQ is a pretty sweet piece of tech which “detects the sound of a gunshot, the shock wave of a bullet and the blast…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Nov 5

Awesome: Boeing Tests Humvee-Mounted Laser Avenger

Yeah, you read that right: A laser strapped to a Humvee. The Avenger is Boeing’s air defense system typically loaded up with a heavy machine gun or Stinger missiles, but for a test a couple weeks ago, they mounted one of the systems on a Humvee equipped with a 1-kilowatt solid-state laser. During the test,…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Oct 18

NYC and DC Get $4k Bomb-Stopping Trash Cans

So it appears that the latest weapon against the war on terror is a 2,000-pound, steel bin of….trash. Dubbed the BlastGard 101, the new trash can is being rolled out in parts of NYC and DC for its bomb-stopping capabilities. So aside from its massive weight, the steel trash bin can quench fireballs and stifle…

Tech News Louis Ramirez Jan 19

Zephyr Shatters Robot Plane Endurance Record

U.S. Navy Developing Lasers and Huge Guns

Five Guns for Wars of the Future, Not One a Death Ray

U.S. Military To Be 30 Percent Robotic In Twelve Years

Good News: The Air Force Wants a Holodeck

Blackswift Will Be the First War Machine In Space

Review: Generation Kill—The Iraq War, Batteries Not Included

Sarah Connor Has Failed — the British Just Built Skynet

New Army Cluster Bomb Rains Down Thousands of Deadly Darts

Boeing Developing Planes with Frickin Laser Beams

World’s Smallest UAV Weighs 10 Grams, Flaps Like a Bird

Combat Robots Not Being Withdrawn From Iraq Says Company, Human Masters Safe

Combat Robot Attempts Rebellion Against Human Masters in Iraq, Army Pulls Plug for 10-20 Years

DARPA Robot Crusher Truck Earns Its Name

DARPA Building Neuromorphic Brain on a Chip (Paging Sarah Connor)

Divine Thunderbolt Bunker Buster: Bye Bye Mole People

RAF Pilots To Get New Hardware, Stay On Target

Personal Sniper Detector Hears Better Than Superman

Awesome: Boeing Tests Humvee-Mounted Laser Avenger

NYC and DC Get $4k Bomb-Stopping Trash Cans

Amazon Is Sticking With ‘Rings of Power’ to the End

Trump Is Reportedly Going Full Steam Ahead with the Golden Dome

‘Kamen Rider’ Is Ready to Take on the World

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The ‘Mass Effect’ Show is Getting Rewritten to Get Greenlit

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