Less Soldiers, More Robots for the Millitary

 

The pentagon's Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's proposed budget would, according to the proposal, shrink the Army to 450k or to levels that existed just before the United States entered into ww2.

The plan is to fill the void with hi-tech devices that have proven themselves reliable but for the most part, more of these devices can be fielded with far fewer personnel.

Weapon platforms are not exempt either. The U2 and A10 are well known weapon and surveillance systems, but rising costs of manufacture and maintenance plus the need for a human in the seat throughout the mission.

Naval systems like the Littoral Combat Ship, a new modular naval vessel capable of light combat, anti submarine / mines etc, all with a modular design and an equally small crew, possibly as few as 88. Another example is the new Zumwalt destroyer. This vessel can go to sea with a crew of apx. 150 where the aging Ashleigh-Burke fields 300 with almost no automation. The Popular Science article is very good and informative. You Can Read The Whole Article Here

Army working on "synthetic telepathy"

According to MSNBC: A new Army grant aims to create email or voice mail and send it by thought alone. No need to type an e-mail, dial a phone or even speak a word. Known as synthetic telepathy, the technology is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. The Army grant to researchers at University of California, Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland has two objectives. The first is to compose a message using sub-vocalization or as researchers put it "that little voice in your head." The second part is to send that message to a particular individual or object (like a radio), also just with the power of thought. Once the message reaches the recipient, it could be read as text or as a voice mail. A medical use for such a system is for patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS. As the disease progresses, patients have fully functional brains but slowly lose control over their muscles. Synthetic telepathy could be a way for these patients to communicate.

<- MSNBC via Boing Boing ->

Army still serious about mind control

We have heard so many times of the odd tech that seems to fascinate the military. For the most part we see that there is no substantive science behind the projects. Most often they quickly phased out and forgotten. One project seems to continue netting support over and over again. Shaun Saunders notes that Time magazine online reports of renewed interest in the science of mind control. Not so much of people, but soldiers in the field having control over machines. In the article: ....the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone...."

The pic at right show just how many brain-wave reading sensors the Army scientists want to cram into a helmet.

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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

Cyborg army in the works

Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israeli defense firm has recently unveiled a portable robot known as VIPeR which is capable of entering most combat zones on its own and exchanging fire with enemies thanks to its arsenal of a machine-pistol and some grenades. Sharing the rough dimensions of a small TV, the VIPeR could play a vital role when it comes to protecting Israel's interests from Palestinian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. The VIPeR still requires the assistance of a human controller to perform.

I got a charge out of Adam Frucci's comments on this article over at SCIFI Tech. He wrote "Well, it's official. Life is turning into a mediocre science-fiction movie and our remote control is out of batteries."

New Robo-Weapon: Paralyzing Floodlight

The US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate plans to demonstrate the use of a 7.5 million candlepower strobe floodlight system mounted on board an unmanned air vehicle as a non-lethal crowd-control system.

The project will see a Peak Beam Systems searchlight adapted to operate as a strobe capable of inducing physical effects, such as short-term paralysis, in humans.

The system uses a xenon-based searchlight that "can be pulsed with a unique modulation [strobe] effect that results in immobilisation to those within the beam.

But that's not the only flying robot / ray gun combo the U.S. military is examining. The Air Force is also toying with the idea of mounting its Active Denial System pain weapon on a drone, too. Just so the robots can make us feel like we're on fire, before they temporarily blind us.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders