China is developing aircraft capable of reaching US shores with nuclear warheads in just 14 minutes, reports suggest.
The craft will be capable of hypersonic flight speeds of up to 27,000 miles per hour (43,200 kmh) — 35 times the speed of sound.
Continue reading “China sets 2020 date for world’s fastest wind tunnel” »
Boeing and Northrop Grumman have each received deals to start developing a replacement for the Minuteman III.
The Trump administration placed orders with two major defense firms on Monday to start working on technology for new intercontinental ballistic missiles to replace the Cold War-era Minuteman III.
The deals come amid nuclear threats against the U.S. by North Korea and increased tension with Russia, which is upgrading its ICBMs.
Continue reading “US Air Force Hires Two Firms to Start Developing America’s Next ICBM” »
Air Force lieutenant general Steve Kwast believes a “Kitty Hawk” moment will begin a new era in space. But while the U.S. still leads every other country in space, Kwast cautions that edge is whittling away.
“In my best military judgement China is on a 10-year journey to operationalize space. We’re on a 50-year journey,” Kwast told CNBC.
Kwast, who is also the commander and president of Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, says the United States must “bring together the right talent to accelerate the journey” in a Manhattan Project-like meeting of minds. He says this would push the space industry to an moment like Wright Brothers had when they completed the first successful airplane flight in 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina…
Future U.S. military tanks may look and perform nothing like they do today.
In fact, they may not even have windows and instead seal military personnel inside a closed cockpit to better protect them against threats.
But how could they see the battlefield around them without windows? To see outside, Soldiers could use a new technology made by Honeywell that lets them “see” with virtual reality and augmented reality.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WDUPM4BBkJ8
A colonel who runs a research directorate says the Nehreta did well in recent exercises at proving grounds outside Moscow.
The Russian military will field a new armed tank-like robot that “outperformed” manned platforms in recent exercises at the Alabino proving grounds outside Moscow.
Continue reading “Russia Says It Will Field a Robot Tank that Outperforms Humans” »
Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt says the US is at risk of falling behind in the race to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence. Speaking at a tech summit organized by national security think tank CNAS, Schmidt predicted that America’s lead in the field would continue “over the next five years” before China catches up “extremely quickly.”
“They are going to use this technology for both commercial and military objectives, with all sorts of implications,” said Schmidt, referencing a Chinese policy document outlining the country’s ambition to become the global leader in AI by 2030. Schmidt reiterated several familiar talking points in this debate, primarily that the US is failing to invest in basic research, and that a restrictive immigration policy hobbles the country’s ability to attract AI talent from overseas.
“Some of the very best people are in countries that we won’t let into America. Would you rather have them building AI somewhere else, or rather have them here?” said Schmidt. “Iran produces some of the top computer scientists in the world, and I want them here. To be clear, I want them working for Alphabet and Google!”
Continue reading “Google’s former CEO says US could fail in the AI competition with China” »
South Korea is ‘almost 100 per cent certain’ that North Korean hackers have stolen the blueprints for their warships and submarines.
The despotic regime is thought to have taken the documents after hacking into Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd’s database in April last year.
Continue reading “North Korean hackers steal warship blueprints from South” »
DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program envisions future small-unit infantry forces using small unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and/or small unmanned ground systems (UGSs) in swarms of 250 robots or more to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments. By leveraging and combining emerging technologies in swarm autonomy and human-swarm teaming, the program seeks to enable rapid development and deployment of breakthrough capabilities to the field.
To augment enhance OFFSET’s potential contributions to the warfighter, DARPA aims to engage with a wider developer and user audience through rapid technology-development and integration efforts called swarm sprints. Participants in these experiments—“sprinters”—can work with one or both integration teams and each other to create and test their own novel swarm tactics and enabling technologies.
Continue reading “OFFSET Program Calls for Participants in Swarm Sprints” »
China has carried out a test flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, that could provide rapid cargo delivery to remote islets in the South China Sea without airstrips, in Beijing’s latest move to secure its presence in the disputed waters.
The drone – built from a modified low-cost fixed-wing plane – can carry 1.5 tonnes of cargo and land on a runway of just 200 metres, according to the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, which led the project.
It can also use a dirt track or grass field for take off and landing at military facilities that do not have an airfield, the institute said on its website on Friday.
