Lifeboat Foundation

This is what it took to become a sub hunter tasked with protecting America’s carrier battle groups at the twilight of the Cold War.

The PLAN has built a series of underground tunnels to protect key warships and submarines from surprise attack. A few are well known, others need careful analysis to identify.

As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and historically low oil prices, the missile launch may signal a new willingness to take risks by Iran.

It said the satellite — dubbed the Nour — was deployed from the Qassed two-stage launcher from the Markazi desert, a vast expanse in Iran’s central plateau.

The satellite “orbited the Earth at 425km [264 miles]”, said the website. “This action will be a great success and a new development in the field of space for Islamic Iran.”

Continue reading “Iran launches its first military satellite” »

Flyt Aerospace is offering its Red Hummingbird pilot-optional, fully-electric hoverbike for the US Air Force’s (USAF’s) Agility Prime electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) procurement effort.

The eight-motor, multi-rotor Red Hummingbird is designed for speeds of 0–97 km/h in 5.1 seconds, payload capacity of up to 113 kg, a cost of USD2.40 worth of electricity per flight, and the ability to operate for 20–30 minutes per charge. The aircraft is also designed to create only 65 db of noise at 50 ft altitude. Flyt is offering the Red Hummingbird for the Agility Prime 1–2 person capacity area of interest (AOI) 2, according to company founder and CEO Ansel Misfeldt.

Misfeldt told Jane’s on 1 May that the Red Hummingbird has a fully-built prototype currently in flight testing, but that the aircraft has yet to fly with a human. Flyt has so far been flying the aircraft with weights in the pilot seat to ensure system checkout before flying with a pilot.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h5jBjso6l6I

Circa 2015

Fittingly, these rifle-sized weapons would gun for other electronics.

Continue reading “The Army Is Testing Handheld Ray Guns” »

Beijing’s desire to turn the South China Sea into a personal lake for President Xi Jinping is getting pushback from an unexpected source, the United State Marine Corps. When people think of the Marines, they generally think of assault troops and aggressive attacks on fortified positions, so sea control might seem a stretch for the Corps.

But Marines are adaptive. Actually, the Marines are going back to the future. The seizure and defense of advanced naval bases has been a major part of the Marine Corps’ mission for over a century; but since World War II, the seizure portion — better known as amphibious warfare — has overshadowed the defensive mission. The Marine Corps commandant, Gen. David Berger, is rebalancing the Marine Corps for a closer integration with the Navy after the two sea services had drifted apart for several decades.

To understand this, we need to understand the threat posed by Chinese build-up in the Indo-Pacific Region.

The companies hope their team up will nab one of two spots in the competition, to be awarded later this year.

The test came out of DARPA, the U.S. military’s research division, and may be granted an accelerated emergency use authorization by the FDA by the end of the week, according to The Guardian.

If the test works as expected, it could play a major role in preventing future outbreaks by letting people know they need to self-isolate well before they start spreading the coronavirus.

“The concept fills a diagnostic gap worldwide,” Dr. Brad Ringeisen, head of DARPA’s biological technologies office, told The Guardian. He added that, should the FDA approve the test for use, it could be “absolutely a gamechanger.”

Mr. Schmidt is pressing forward with a Silicon Valley worldview where advances in software and A.I. are the keys to figuring out almost any issue. While that philosophy has led to social networks that spread disinformation and other unintended consequences, Mr. Schmidt said he was convinced that applying new and relatively untested technology to complex situations — including deadly ones — would make service members more efficient and bolster the United States in its competition with China.

The former Google C.E.O. has reinvented himself as the prime liaison between Silicon Valley and the military-industrial complex.

The U.S. military has been “stuck in software in the 1980s,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s former chief executive. Credit… Winni Wintermeyer/Redux.