Military Tests Advanced Hypersonic Weapon

See what happens?! I thought when they said after the last hypersonic test that it was the last one...well you see, I was foolish enough to believe that it really was, so when I was told that there was a successful test, I was under the impression that they were talking about the last one you know, the HyperMach SonicStar which even though they lost contact, was deemed some sort of weird success. But no, this was not THAT hyper sonic but the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW)!

You see, as the article in "The Nation" says:

• the AHW is a first-of-its-kind glide vehicle, designed to fly long range within the earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed.

oooooooooooooh I see the difference.....

• The hypersonic flying missile travels five times the speed of sound and is rumoured to gain up to mach 20 speeds. More impressively, it can strike a target in any location on Earth in just 30 minutes.

The HyperMach SonicStar was traveling at a pedestrian 2 hours anywhere on the globe.... ANYWAY.... check these specs out:

• The test flight was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii to the Reagan Test Site, US Army Kwajalein Atoll. It completed the apx. 2,500 mile journey in just 20 minutes.

The Nation article

Astronaut says NASA wants to Nuke asteroids

I am starting to get a sinking feeling here. First I hear that Nasa is asking for funding to track Earth crossing asteroids. That's good.... Then NASA starts talking about reasonable ways to deal with possibly dangerous ones. Again good deal. Then we hear about Rusty Schweickart B612 Foundation, which wants to alter asteroid orbits in a controlled manner. My reaction is that this seems like duplication of efforts. Isn't that what NASA is working on? Why diminish that effort? Then what starts to sound like sour grapes Schweickart says NASA favors using nuclear bombs. But in a 2007 report, that's exactly what NASA is proposing. Now excuse me, hasn't this method proved itself to be one of the LEAST effective? Then reading in a Gizmodo article, NASA and Schweickart's motivations got a lot clearer. As Gizmodo puts it:

• Schweickart believes its (NASA) cash-strapped later years might have led the agency—under immense pressure from Washington—to endorse a program with an ulterior motive: put nuclear weapons in space.

I don't know why I should be surprised, it's well known that several shuttle mission were thinly disguised military, many of the pre-mercury launches like the Aurora were out and out spy flights, I can totally get behind there being ulterior motivations for what at first sounds idiotic. And in the end, what makes it totally insane, is the fact that a platform like this could be taken out with a well place can of nails. But that is another story...

How To: Terminate a Terminator (Updated)

I love this kind of stuff! Wired's Danger Room online page delves once again into how to take down a Terminator. Going through classes of armor, and weapons choices both indoor and outdoor, to get the most effective damage results. What makes this exercise fun is they tie it into the Terminator movies for hints on what will and what will not work against what director Cameron calls "chrome plated death". As Wired puts it: Generally speaking, Terminators appear to be able to shrug off small-arms fire. However, as a military technology enthusiast, you have to ask exactly how good their protection is. They have done their research, you can say that. The classes of armor even have hotlinks to detailed ballistics and the types of armor that will stop them. Also is a discussion on metal armor (which director Cameron went for for asthetic reason....lol) vs the real life adoption of unique ceramic composites. Each round and firearm type has links to realworld pages on these weapons, which give you a real insight into the power that some of these modern weapons can develop. Many of which were not even available when the first Terminator appeared. Makes you wonder what influenced what? Click the link for the complete article

Israel eyes thinking machines to fight "Doomsday" missile strikes

From Wired via Boing Boing

What word am I thinking of right now kiddies....I'll wait:

Israeli military leaders have begun early planning for a new, robotic defense system, armed with enough artificial intelligence that it "could take over completely" from flesh-and-blood operators. Israeli military says "It will be designed for... autonomous operations and in the event of a "doomsday" strike, the system could handle "attacks that exceed physiological limits of human command.

I echo the sage words of the Boing Boing crew " How do you say "Skynet" in Hebrew?"

Sci-fi Meets Reality: Taser Firing Flying Saucers Now in Production

Shaun A. Saunders spotted t his article in The Third Eye Concept online magazine. Shaun's comments were particullarly telling: "Here we go - a blend of Mallcity 14, 1984, and Dark Angel..."

Which is very apt, when you come to consider the simularities. The meat of the article is that a French businessman has revealed that his company is working on putting TASER stun guns on a flying saucer that could zap protesters, and anyone else that authorities target. Antoine di Zazzo is a high ranking rep for the company TAZER. He revealed that his company is developing a small airborne drone version of a weapon that can administer electrical jolts of 50,000 volts. The mini-flying saucer like drone will fire Taser stun rounds on criminal suspects or rioting crowds. He expects it to be launched next year and to be sold internationally by Taser.

Robotic Exoskeleton Turns Soldiers Into Space Marines

From AMC

Sci-fi has trained us to expect military personnel to be walking around in mech suits. From Starship Troopers to Robocop, our expectations have been set: if you're not walking around in a flying skeleton of titanium alloy, you're just a flaccid water balloon full of meat slurry in a shooting range.

here is some video of very up to date "super suit"

amc/scifiscanner/2007/11/robotic-exoskel.html

Terminator kill-bots to be run by system 'Skynet'

Ok, when I first saw this story, I thought someone at the Register was spending way too much time in the john smoking something he shouldn't. But I followed a few of the links and it keeps getting stranger and weirder! Click on the article title for the complete story, here is a portion of the story:

Following the announcement of the new Flying-HK-style "Reaper" death machines for the British forces, the prophetic nature of the Terminator movies has been further confirmed.

Not only will the UK MoD deploy airborne cyber-gunships remarkably similar to those in the films, the flying robot assassins will be controlled by an IT project named "Skynet". This latest case of life imitating art comes with the news that the first of the Skynet 5 satellites has gone operational and is now successfully carrying data to and from British forces fighting in Southwest Asia.

Oh there is more! No I am not in fear of terminators arising and killing all humans...however you have to wonder at the sanity of of putting a system like this together, automating it and then blatently calling it Skynet! I don't know about you, but it seems to me to be a big FU in the face of the general public by whatever English governmental agency that is in control of this deal. Unreal!

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

Military Builds Robotic Insects

Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. The prototype will not see action for three years. However, slightly larger romote attack robots, Called killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs are well on their way to deployment.

British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The $3,000 WASP is nearly silent, so it can get very close without being detected. A new development will reportedly see the WASP fitted with a C4 explosive warhead for kamikaze attacks on snipers.

Many more ground shaking and breaking ideas in the story. Click the title for more.

Shaun Saunders submission.