After years of funding woes, Air Force Special Operations Command is on track to fire a high-powered laser weapon from an AC-130 gunship sometime in fiscal year 2022, officials said.
Speaking during the Virtual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference last week, Air Force Col. Melissa Johnson — program executive officer for fixed-wing programs at SOCOM — stated that the command is inching towards strapping a laser weapon aboard an AC-130J Ghostrider following a series of studies and ground tests.
Summary: New neurostimulation technology works safely and non-invasively to modify brain activity. The findings may provide some foundational knowledge for the development of future technologies that could expedite cognitive processes.
Source: US Army Research Laboratory
For Army scientists, the goal of neuroscience research is pursuing the inner workings of the human brain to advance scientific understanding and improve Soldier performance.
The Czinger 21C is a 1,233bhp 3D printed hypercar complete with a turbo V8 revving to 11,000rpm, a 1+1 layout and $1.7m price tag. Oh, and the big news is it’s 3D printed. Well, large sections of the chassis are, paving the way for a revolutionary new car manufacturing process that could change… everything. It’s mind-blowing stuff, so let Jack Rix be your guide around California’s Koenigsegg rival.
Army researchers predict quantum computer circuits that will no longer need extremely cold temperatures to function could become a reality after about a decade.
For years, solid-state quantum technology that operates at room temperature seemed remote. While the application of transparent crystals with optical nonlinearities had emerged as the most likely route to this milestone, the plausibility of such a system always remained in question.
Now, Army scientists have officially confirmed the validity of this approach. Dr. Kurt Jacobs, of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, working alongside Dr. Mikkel Heuck and Prof. Dirk Englund, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became the first to demonstrate the feasibility of a quantum logic gate comprised of photonic circuits and optical crystals.
US President Barack Obama called the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to global security on Tuesday and broadly expanded the US response by ordering thousands of troops to the region along with an aggressive effort to train health care workers and build treatment centres. He called on other countries to quickly provide more helpers, supplies and money. “If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us,” Obama declared after briefings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Obama acted under pressure from regional leaders and international aid organisations who pleaded for a heightened US role in confronting the deadly virus, especially in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. “In West Africa, Ebola is now an epidemic,” Obama said. “It’s spiralling out of control, it is getting worse.“ The stepped-up US response includes sending 3,000 troops to the region, including medics and corpsmen for treatment and training, engineers to help build treatment facilities and logistics specialists to assist in patient transportation. Obama also announced that Major General Darryl Williams, head of US Army Africa, will head a military command centre based in Liberia. The announcement came the same day the World Health Organisation warned that the number of West African Ebola cases could begin doubling every three weeks and that the crisis could end up costing nearly 1 billion US Dollars to contain. Nearly 5,000 people have become ill from Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal since it was first recognised in March. The World Health Organisation says it anticipates the figure could rise to more than 20,000. Obama described task ahead as “daunting” but said what gives him hope is that “the world knows how to fight this disease.“ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/045def289101ceb2e47170324839d408 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Over the past several years, the increased application of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in a wide variety of industries has inspired both public and private research laboratories to not only continually improve this technology, but to also support the miniaturization of these devices. The development of both micro- and nano-UAVs is directly related to the ability of researchers to miniaturize the major components of these devices, some of which include micro-processors, sensors, batteries and all necessary wireless communication units that allow UAVs to function properly in any given settings.
The flag of the nation’s newest military branch was unveiled today (May 15) during a ceremony in the Oval Office. President Donald Trump watched as the flag was unfurled and designated it the official banner of the Space Force.
“Space is going to be the future, both in terms of defense and offense and so many other things,” said Trump, who also signed the 2020 Armed Forces Day Proclamation during today’s event. “And already, from what I’m hearing and based on reports, we’re now the leader in space.”
As we enter the 2020s, China, Russia and the United States are spending billions to develop hypersonic weapons in a bid to outpace ever-improving missile defenses.
While strategic-range cruise or ballistic missile strikes may be detected between 15 minutes to an hour before impact, hypersonic weapons capable of exceeding five times the speed of sound threaten to decrease that margin to just a few minutes. Such a fast tempo of destruction could destabilize the current balance of power by making first strikes more effective and unpredictable.
China and Russia have taken a lead in this new arms race. In October, China paraded launchers for land-attack DF-17 and anti-ship DF-100 hypersonic missiles. Meanwhile, Russia supposedly is deploying nuclear-capable hypersonic Kinzhal air-launched missiles and Avangard glide vehicles released by RS-28 intercontinental-range missiles.
The US Air Force (USAF) is working toward being able to update the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter’s software while the aircraft is in flight.
The service believes updating software on the fly will reduce fielding time to its fleet by 50%, it says on 12 May. The USAF did not disclose how long it currently takes to update the software of an F-16.
