Meet the ‘Spy Stone,’ a Russian robot disguised as a rock

Meet the ‘Spy Stone,’ a Russian robot disguised as a rock

Post Views: 200 Under lightly falling snow, a soldier sets a rock on the ground. A moment later the rock animates, extending first a periscope-like camera, and then lifting the whole of its rocky exterior to reveal a small set of tracks. With mobility now possible, the little robot wheels down the slight embankment of…

The Air Force is testing a less awkward replacement for ‘piddle packs’

The Air Force is testing a less awkward replacement for ‘piddle packs’

Post Views: 269 Developed by Omni Defense Technologies, “Skydrate” involves a pad for women and a cup for men. Pilots put on the cup or pad beneath a special pair of underwear. When it’s time to go, the pilot connects the cup or pad with a tube leading to a pump outside the flight suit….

This gadget is helping French special forces nail their parachute landings

This gadget is helping French special forces nail their parachute landings

Post Views: 211 That’s the problem addressed by French special forces of the 13th Parachute Dragoon Regiment, known as the 13th RDP, an army regiment entirely dedicated to gathering human intelligence from any theater in peacetime, wartime, or during other crises. Until recently, the 13th RDP paratroopers were using a ground-detecting system developed over 30…

Why Los Alamos lab is working on the tricky task of creating new plutonium coreswe

Post Views: 315 Inside a nuclear warhead, a plutonium pit is crucial to setting off the sequence of reactions that make a thermonuclear explosion. Inside the pit is a gas, like deuterium/tritium, and around the pit is chemical explosive. When the chemical explosive detonates, it compacts the plutonium around the gas until the core is…

The most compelling military tech stories from the land, air, and sea this year

The most compelling military tech stories from the land, air, and sea this year

Post Views: 286 Microsoft inked an enormous, multi-billion-dollar deal to deliver high-tech augmented reality goggles for the US Army. The gadget is based on Microsoft’s HoloLens, although the Army refers to it as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. The devices are a head-up display with night-vision tech and more, and while they promise…

Google Earth caught a $2 billion stealth bomber on candid camera

Google Earth caught a $2 billion stealth bomber on candid camera

Post Views: 202 “It’s pretty funny, you’ve got a stealth bomber flying over a farmer’s house, into his field, it looks like he’s a crop-duster,” said the host of My Garden Channel, a YouTube channel that’s usually dedicated to gardening and plant care. But on Monday, the channel posted a video showing how viewers can…

The US Navy is testing out drone-zapping laser weapons

The US Navy is testing out drone-zapping laser weapons

Post Views: 306 To better understand modern directed-energy weapons, it’s important to take a step back from the science-fiction idea of a laser weapon. High-powered beams of light are expensive to develop and deploy, but they offer a kind of cost-savings once they are up and running. Provided a ship can generate the electrical power…

Why the Air Force wants to put lidar on robot dogs

Why the Air Force wants to put lidar on robot dogs

Post Views: 261 As he speaks, the video highlights the interior of a garage. The laser-constructed vision is surreal, almost unearthly, with objects visible not as whole forms but instead reflected lines adjacent to each other in space. The imaging tool is lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, and while the results are…

Mojave, the new Predator drone, is built to navigate rugged terrain

Mojave, the new Predator drone, is built to navigate rugged terrain

Post Views: 190 “We are providing the ground force with a long-endurance, armed overwatch UAS [unmanned aerial system] that can quickly reload weapons at austere sites, located close to the conflict zone,” General Atomics aeronautical systems CEO Linden Blue said in a release. The Mojave comes 14 years after the Reaper entered service, and 27…