A deeper look into lasers, particle beams, and the future of war

via extremetech.com

We previously looked at the logic behind and general impediments to the use of energy weapons on the battlefield. Beam weapons have developed slowly, as much due to understandable public skepticism as technological limitations. We’ve seen that range is a continuing issue for beam weapons (as is traveling through a gas) and that satellites that kill other satellites are quite possible, while satellites that fire through ozone and several kilometers of air to kill tanks on the Earth’s surface are less likely. Similarly, while the technology needed to create killer energy weapons — like particle beams — exists and seems feasible, it’s just as impractical as lasers for miniaturization and personal deployment.

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Will the next 9/11 be digital?

via digitaltrends.com

Just as our everyday lives depend on the Internet, the backbones of nations increasingly rely on the Internet for communication, coordination, and financial transactions. But relying on the Internet also exposes those core functions threats from anywhere in the world. Need examples? Two weeks ago, some 30,000 systems at South Korean banks and broadcasters were wiped out in a coordinated attack – it might have come from North Korea, but investigators are still chasing basic details. Last week, a cyber-brawl apparently between Spamhaus and CyberBunker has caused localized collateral damage and may have shaken some top-tier Internet providers.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offered an assessment of current worldwide threats to the United States. The list included terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, competition for dwindling natural resources, and even pandemics. But the first item? Cyber threats.

Why are online threats now the top priority for U.S. national security – the first time they’ve outranked terror networks? And how could the U.S.’s heightened stance impact everyday use of the Internet?

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Mayor Bloomberg says surveillance drones are inevitable in NYC: 'get used to it'

via theverge.com

Governmental use of unmanned surveillance drones has inspired a lot of concern about privacy, but New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks the battle's already over. In a radio interview this week, Bloomberg said essentially that drones are an inevitable part of our future (and maybe our present), comparing them to the thousands of cameras already located around Manhattan. "What's the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building?" he asked. "We're going into a different world, uncharted... you can't keep the tide from coming in."

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US national security advisor warns China: 'We will take action... against cyber threats'

via theverge.com

The White House is talking tougher in its growing public conflict with China over cyber attacks on American businesses, which have reportedly been linked back to hackers operating within China's boundaries. On Monday, Tom Donilon, the US national security advisor to President Obama, gave a lengthy address to the Asia Society in New York City, delivering the White House's sternest warning yet to China that the US could retaliate against suspected Chinese cyber attacks if and when it sees fit.

"Increasingly, US businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale," Donilon said in his prepared remarks posted on The White House website. "The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country. As the President said in the State of the Union, we will take action to protect our economy against cyber threats."

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North Korea vows nuclear attack on US, saying Washington will be 'engulfed in a sea of fire'

via foxnews.com

North Korea amplified its threatening rhetoric as the U.N. Security Council approved new sweeping sanctions, vowing to launch a first-strike nuclear attack against the United States and threatening to engulf Washington in a "sea of fire."

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for "a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors" because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.

At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told the crowd that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.

"Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status," Kang said. "When we shell (the missiles), Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, .... will be engulfed in a sea of fire."

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US may consider military action, financial sanctions as repercussions for cyber attacks

via thenextweb.com

Today at the RSA cybersecurity conference, the White House’s cybersecurity leader Michael Daniel stated that the United States has a range of options under consideration for responding to cyber incursions.

According to The Hill’s Jennifer Martinez, the list of possible actions includes “financial sanctions, visa restrictions and military action.” TNW parses that as meaning that no method of possible deterrence has been removed from possibility. This is the proverbial ‘all options on the table’ moment.

Cybersecurity, long a simmering issue in American politics and policy, has reached a new plane of intensity following both first-hands reports by media and technology companies of hacking, but also a report by Mandiant, a security firm, published in the New York Times that indicated that a Chinese military unit was committing aggressive acts of hacking that infringed on American corporate interests and infrastructure points.

That report was corroborated in no small way recently when Senator Dianne Feinstein stated the following: “I read the Mandiant report. I’ve also read other reports, classified out of Intelligence, and I think the Mandiant Report, which is now unclassified, it’s public, is essentially correct.”

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Watch 12 incredible minutes of footage from the cockpit of an F/A-18

via techi.com

With a top speed of Mach 1.8, an impressive assortment of missile and bomb configurations, and a 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon, the F/A 18 is one of the US Navy’s deadliest pieces of equipment. It also happens to be an amazing ride from a purely aeronautical perspective.

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World War III Is Already Here - And We're Losing

via readwrite.com

Every day the Pentagon is attacked 3 million times. They’ve infiltrated our banks. They’ve ransacked our technology industry. They’ve breached the networks of the Chamber of Commerce. They’ve read our email by taking down one of America’s pre-eminent technology companies, Google. It’s already World War III, people. And all we do is smile at the enemy.

Last Wednesday, The New York Times announced that its computers had been hacked. That passwords had been stolen. That its private networks had been traversed with impunity by a bunch of brazen hackers. We’re not talking Anonymous here nor a bunch of ethical hackers. No we’re at war with China.

To paraphrase on old newspaper joke, “what’s black and white and red all over?” The Chinese Red Army, that’s who.

How do we know that? As William Gibson might bark, “Pattern Recognition!” Computer security experts consulting with The New York Times identified the malware “as a specific strain associated with computer attacks originating in China.”

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US Military Will Install Laser Turrets on Bombers and Fighter Jets

via gizmodo.com

It was science fiction before, but now it's really happening, Young Skywalker: The US Navy and Air Force are going to install liquid-cooled, solid-state lasers in combat airplanes. Laser turrets designed to defend the planes by shooting incoming threats like surface-to-air missiles and rockets. Seriously. The above is an official concept image by DARPA, but integration is happening this year, with real firing tests coming in 2014.

The USAF has been playing with lasers in planes for a while. They worked to create the the highly successful—but ultimately shelved—Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed. Remember Reagan's Star Wars? This was one of the few technologies that we got to work outside those 3D animations that scared the Soviets so much.

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The US Military Tested a Tsunami Bomb That Could Rival the Nuclear Bomb

via gizmodo.com

We've all seen the destruction that tsunamis can cause. It doesn't play around. But back in 1944, the US military wanted to play around with tsunamis in hope of creating a man made tsunami bomb—basically setting off 10 large blasts in the ocean to create a 33-foot tsunami that would pulverize and drown a city.

New Zealand author and filmmaker Ray Waru discovered these manmade tsunami bombs were set off in the top secret operation of "Project Seal" during World War II. Around 3,700 bombs were detonated during the testing and the tests revealed that a successful tsunami bomb would require "about 2 million kilograms of explosive arrayed in a line about five miles from shore." Not exactly chump change.

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This Is the Future of the US Navy

via gizmodo.com

Witness, the beginning of a new era: the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman. Soon, there will be no more Maverick or Ice Man. In a couple of decades, everything will be stealthy, autonomous or remote controlled war creatures, much more cost-effective than their expensive human-carrying counterparts. Not as romantic and epic, but cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to operate and no lost pilots' lives.

The eighth Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy is acting as the test bed for this unmanned airplane, with the crew training to operate it.

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The Amazing History and Figures of the First Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier in the World

via gizmodo.com

The USS Enterprise, the first nuclear aircraft carrier in the world, has been officially retired today at a ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia—special appearance by Captain Kirk included. Since her comissioning in November 1961, she has served under ten Commanders-in-Chief, including John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

The figures and the history of this mighty sea titan are impressive. Here you have them all...

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The Secret to Iranian Drone Technology? Just Add Photoshop

via theatlanticwire.com

Earlier this month, Iran's news agency provided visual evidence that its government had figured out to make a fancy new drone that could take off and land vertically. What they didn't tell us is that they used Photoshop to make it stop taking off from the roof of Japan's Chiba University, which built the aircraft and never had anything to do with Iran's alleged version of it.

All the credit of this photoshop spot goes to one Gary Mortimer, a blogging pilot who photo-sleuthed the Iranian drone, the KOKER 1, when it was unveiled on November 7. Here's actual visual evidence of the two images — the Iranian image is on the left, the Chiba University 2008 image is on the right — with the same building and everything... except for those windmill things...

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What Great Leaders Have That Good Leaders Don't

“My loyalty to Country and Team is beyond reproach.” --Navy SEAL Creed

When you think of strong leaders, you probably think of people who are decisive, bold, confident, and fearless. You’re not wrong. Good leaders have all of these qualities. But how many good leaders are also loyal? I don’t know, but I know that every great leader is.

Loyalty is one of the core values taught in the Navy SEAL training program. Instructors teach you from the first day that your team is everything to you. You succeed with them, and you fail without them. And you never leave anyone behind.

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These Are The 10 Coolest Military Robots You've Never Heard About

via businessinsider.com

Like it or not, robots are swiftly making their way deeper and deeper into battlefield operations.

Though the airborne drone seems to take precedent, both in combat operations as well as media coverage, there are a few robots bubbling beneath the public consciousness that hardly anyone talks about.

Here are a few of the coolest bots no one seems to notice.

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These 20 Advanced Military Projects Will Change Your Life

via businessinsider.com

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) gets a ton of funding to develop the science and technological future of the military.

This is the agency responsible for GPS, the internet and stealth planes. They're the real deal.

We looked at their active projects to find the ones that might have massive civilian implications if they eventually produce real-world tech.

Last round, we focused on the Defense Science Office and their Information Innovation Office. This time, we're looking at DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office, which is researching the next age of computing technology.

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Video from Space Shows Army Creating an Island Off the Coast of the US

via gizmodo.com

The Army has been creating an island since 1998 on the Northeast coast of the United States. Slowly, the US Army Corps of Engineers built concrete dikes to establish its perimeter and then have spent more than decade filling them with mud.

Its name: Poplar island.

Fortunately, no weird stuff is going on there (that we know of, anyway). Poplar Island, which is being rebuilt in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, is 30 miles south of Baltimore Harbor, where all the mud is coming from.

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Future Drones Will Autonomously Navigate the Skies Without GPS

via gizmodo.com

Military drones rely heavily on GPS for navigation guidance while in the air. But in areas where a signal can't be found, or where someone is using a GPS jammer, a drone will find itself in a troublesome predicament. Military sub-contractor BAE Systems has come up with a solution to that problem: A positioning system called NAVSOP that uses any wireless signal to find its location.

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The Future of Drone Surveillance: Swarms of Cyborg Insect Drones

via networkworld.com

Forget the roachbots and the swarm of MIT humanoid robots dancing in sync, as well as "disposable" quarter-sized kilobots which are "cheap enough to swarm in the thousands," and think instead of DARPA-like tiny insect cyborg drones that are "designed to go places that soldiers cannot" to work as spies or as swarm weapons. Is this a mosquito micro air vehicle (MAV)?

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Army Scientists Build a Better Battery

via gizmodo.com

Single-cell batteries have an inherent design limitation that prevents them from producing more than 4 volts—they simply can't do it, there isn't enough energy density to produce that extra bit of output. That is, until now.

"This is what you would call a quantum leap," Army researcher Arthur Cresce said in a press release. "We've gone from circling around a certain type of four volt energy for quite a while. All of a sudden a whole new class of batteries and voltages are open to us. The door is open that was closed before." This breakthrough comes after years of research by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory into how the various battery components interact with one another.

The research team found that the inclusion of a specific, proprietary (and now patented) additive bumps the battery output from four volts to five—that's a 30-percent increase and a huge deal. As Cynthia Lundgren, chief of the electrochemical branch at the USARL explained:

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