military

This rock could spy on you for decades

America is supposed to wind down its war in Afghanistan by 2014. But U.S. forces may continue to track Afghans for years after the conflict is officially done. Palm-sized sensors, developed for the American military, will remain littered across the Afghan countryside — detecting anyone who moves nearby and reporting their locations back to a…

io9 Noah Shachtman - Danger Room May 29

This Rock Could Spy on You for Decades

America is supposed to wind down its war in Afghanistan by 2014. But U.S. forces may continue to track Afghans for years after the conflict is officially done. Palm-sized sensors, developed for the American military, will remain littered across the Afghan countryside – detecting anyone who moves nearby and reporting their locations back to a…

Tech News Noah Shachtman - Wired May 29

Backpack Radar Kit Promises To Secure Your Campsite

The great outdoors can provide a relaxing reprieve from city life, but not if you spend all your time worrying about bears invading your camp. So even though it’s designed for military use, this radar-in-a-backpack kit should provide ample peace of mind when roughing it. The kit weighs less than 20 pounds when packed away,…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski May 28

Iran Is Building ‘New’ Helicopters Based Around 50-Year-Old American Technology

Iran’s military, purported haters of the west and all things American, revealed designs for new helicopters which will be “100% Made In Iran.” But for all their grandstanding, there’s one detail that shouldn’t be overlooked: it’s based on 50-year-old American technology. Yes, that’s right, Iran’s latest weapon is a copy of the Cobra chopper, which…

Tech News Adrian Covert May 25

The Navy Is Equipping Its Ships With 4G Networks

Bandwidth on Navy ships is a scarce, expensive commodity. For sailors using non-essential systems, like recreational computers? Dial-up speeds – if they’re lucky. But by the end of the year, for the first time, the Navy will put a 4G LTE wireless network aboard some of its ships, giving a whole new communications tool to…

Tech News Spencer Ackerman - Wired May 24

This Russian city uses old Soviet tanks as playgrounds

In the environs of the southwestern Siberian city of Omsk, you can find decommissioned Soviet tanks welded shut and dotting children’s playgrounds. Behold the most hardcore playground accoutrements this side of splinter-covered monkey bars. Omsk has a history of being a center of military production, which explains why these ASU-85s and Т-62s are painted happily…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 23

Dropping Explosives From a Quadrotor Puts Tom Clancy to Shame

To a casual observer, this video might look like dropping high explosives from an RC helicopter. Which would be cool enough on its own. But the real case is so, so much better: This is the future of dropping tiny, deadly bombs from the sky. Richard Ryan continues his real life exploration of the military…

Tech News Kyle Wagner May 23

Welcome to the Smithsonian’s Atomic Weapons Museum

The Atomic Age is a difficult period to memorialize. Research from the time period yielded a clean form of energy, but also killed hundreds of thousands of individuals in World War II and plunged the planet into a Cold War. The National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada aims to collect artifacts and interpret…

io9 Keith Veronese May 17

Watch How Video Game Special Ops Tech Works in Real Life

Video games like Ghost Recon and Modern Warfare are stuffed full of awesome future tech. But how much of it can actually be replicated in the field today, and what does it actually look like? Richard Ryan from Rated RR took thermal weapons and imagers from Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for a test drive. The…

Tech News Kyle Wagner May 16

This Watch Might Have Saved Someone’s Life in Vietnam

Luxury watch makers seem to be caught up in an arms race to include the most exotic materials in their timepieces. From genuine volcanic ash, to metal from the Titanic, to a face stamped from the bodywork of one of the most recognizable symbols of the Vietnam War. https://gizmodo.com/who-wants-a-watch-containing-volcanic-ash-from-last-wee-5522013 Mecccaniche Veloci’s new Only One watch…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski May 15

Sat Photos May Show Iran Hiding Nuke Gear

To the naked eye, the photo above doesn’t seem to show anything more than a couple of bland houses against a deary landscape. But a prominent nuclear-weapons researcher thinks it might display the concealment of Iran’s nuclear program. All this over a few water stains.[top] The site on display is Parchin, a military base in…

Tech News Spencer Ackerman - Wired May 10

The future weapons of the 1970s looked like G.I. Joe vehicles

I wish I knew what documentary this footage was from, but it’s pretty trippy in its own right. In the above clip, concept art of the far-flung weapons of spacefaring battalions are presented to the awestruck viewer. Someday, future generations may enlist in the United States Army’s UFO Commandos. [Via Reddit]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 10

Why Building the Death Star Is a Bad Investment

I wish to address the most important policy question of the millenium: should we build a Death Star? This debate picked up this year after some Lehigh University students estimated that just the steel for a Death Star would cost $852 quadrillion, or 13,000 times the current GDP of the Earth. Kevin Drum suggests this…

Tech News Gregory Koger May 9

Commandos Now Play Digital Brain Games as War Prep

U.S. special operations forces carry out some the military’s toughest, most high-stakes missions. To pull them off, the commandos need speed, agility and swift perception skills akin to those of top-tier professional athletes. That might explain why the military’s latest commando training program will rely on a virtual-reality system already employed by pro sports teams.…

Tech News Katie Drummond - Wired May 8

Pentagon Quit The Avengers Because of Its ‘Unreality’

The Pentagon halted its cooperation with Marvel Studios’ blockbuster movie The Avengers because the Defense Department didn’t think a movie about superheroes, Norse Gods and intergalactic invasions was sufficiently realistic in its treatment of military bureaucracy. Moviegoers and comic fans know that S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Samuel L. Jackson’s super-spy Nick Fury, is an international peacekeeping/global…

Movies Spencer Ackerman - Wired May 7

E-Mail Confused Osama, and 5 Other Revelations From the Bin Laden Files

Osama bin Laden may have been the evil mastermind behind the world’s most successful terrorist group. But in his final days, he sounded more and more like your great aunt Henrietta: nagging his subordinates for not hating America enough – the terrorist equivalent of telling the kids to get off his lawn – and getting…

Privacy & Security Spencer Ackerman - Wired May 3

Here’s the Plan to Fly Missile-Packed Blimps Over Your Home

Upstart Virginia aerospace firm Mav6 is offering to install guided missiles on the massive, robotic spy blimp it’s building for the Air Force. The idea would only be slightly terrifying, if the massive airship was headed to Afghanistan, as originally planned. But Mav6 and its CEO, a respected retired Air Force general, are also promoting…

Tech News David Axe - Wired May 3

F-22 Pilots Don’t Want to Fly the F-22

Not exactly a grand gesture of confidence: some of the US Air Force’s airmen, the world’s most elite, want nothing to do with the Air Force’s “elite” new fighter. Why? Because the only people it’s threatening are its own pilots. https://gizmodo.com/the-sad-odyssey-of-the-f-22-americas-big-broken-toy-5853857 ABC News reports, shockingly, that the admission came from within the Air Force itself—the…

Tech News Sam Biddle May 1

Flying Your Own Military Drone: A User Manual

When was the last time you read the instruction manual that came with anything? Maybe never—they’re usually worth tossing. Unless, of course, you’re going to pilot and kill someone with a Predator drone. In that case, read this. This leaked manual, released by PublicIntelligence and orignally published by the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems group…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 30

Are Afghans Unable to Beat the Taliban Because of Clinical Depression?

Maybe the reason that the Afghan counterinsurgency has been such a flop is that the people there are too traumatized and depressed to make nation-building work. That’s the controversial conclusion of an Air Force colonel who recently spent a year in Afghanistan as the head of a reconstruction team. In an unpublished paper, Col. Erik…

Tech News Noah Shachtman - Wired Apr 30

This rock could spy on you for decades

This Rock Could Spy on You for Decades

Backpack Radar Kit Promises To Secure Your Campsite

Iran Is Building ‘New’ Helicopters Based Around 50-Year-Old American Technology

The Navy Is Equipping Its Ships With 4G Networks

This Russian city uses old Soviet tanks as playgrounds

Dropping Explosives From a Quadrotor Puts Tom Clancy to Shame

Welcome to the Smithsonian’s Atomic Weapons Museum

Watch How Video Game Special Ops Tech Works in Real Life

This Watch Might Have Saved Someone’s Life in Vietnam

Sat Photos May Show Iran Hiding Nuke Gear

The future weapons of the 1970s looked like G.I. Joe vehicles

Why Building the Death Star Is a Bad Investment

Commandos Now Play Digital Brain Games as War Prep

Pentagon Quit The Avengers Because of Its ‘Unreality’

E-Mail Confused Osama, and 5 Other Revelations From the Bin Laden Files

Here’s the Plan to Fly Missile-Packed Blimps Over Your Home

F-22 Pilots Don’t Want to Fly the F-22

Flying Your Own Military Drone: A User Manual

Are Afghans Unable to Beat the Taliban Because of Clinical Depression?

Southwest Is About to Limit Power Banks on Flights

Damn, the ‘Power Rangers’ Reboot Could’ve Had Four Movies

The Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Team Wants to Go the Distance

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Will Please Gross Horror Fans

Somehow Paramount’s ‘Avatar’ Movie Has Leaked, Too

The World Is Basically Begging for Another iPod

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

OpenAI Says Elon Musk Is ‘Injecting Chaos’ with Recent Legal Maneuver

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

Let us help find what you are looking for...

military

This rock could spy on you for decades

This Rock Could Spy on You for Decades

Backpack Radar Kit Promises To Secure Your Campsite

Iran Is Building ‘New’ Helicopters Based Around 50-Year-Old American Technology

The Navy Is Equipping Its Ships With 4G Networks

This Russian city uses old Soviet tanks as playgrounds

Dropping Explosives From a Quadrotor Puts Tom Clancy to Shame

Welcome to the Smithsonian​’s Atomic Weapons Museum

Watch How Video Game Special Ops Tech Works in Real Life

This Watch Might Have Saved Someone’s Life in Vietnam

Sat Photos May Show Iran Hiding Nuke Gear

The future weapons of the 1970s looked like G.I. Joe vehicles

Why Building the Death Star Is a Bad Investment

Commandos Now Play Digital Brain Games as War Prep

Pentagon Quit The Avengers Because of Its ‘Unreality’

E-Mail Confused Osama, and 5 Other Revelations From the Bin Laden Files

Here’s the Plan to Fly Missile-Packed Blimps Over Your Home

F-22 Pilots Don’t Want to Fly the F-22

Flying Your Own Military Drone: A User Manual

Are Afghans Unable to Beat the Taliban Because of Clinical Depression?

Southwest Is About to Limit Power Banks on Flights

Damn, the ‘Power Rangers’ Reboot Could’ve Had Four Movies

The Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Team Wants to Go the Distance

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Will Please Gross Horror Fans

Somehow Paramount’s ‘Avatar’ Movie Has Leaked, Too

The World Is Basically Begging for Another iPod

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

OpenAI Says Elon Musk Is ‘Injecting Chaos’ with Recent Legal Maneuver

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

Let us help find what you are looking for...

Welcome to the Smithsonian’s Atomic Weapons Museum