On Friday December 10th, 2010 BAE Systems tested an experimental Electromagnetic Railgun launcher developed for the Office of Naval Research and showed of the firing potential to some top Navy brass at Dahlgren Weapons Station in Virginia. The highly-publicized shot measured 33-megajoules (MJ) of muzzle energy, almost tripling the previous world record of 10.64 MJ set in January of 2008.
To offer some perspective, a one-ton vehicle moving at 100 MPH equals a single MJ of energy.
BAE, in partenership with SAIC and IAP Research, got the $21million development contract for the system back in February 2009. BAE reached out to us here at DefenseTech and Military.com this morning with some semi-exclusive video of the test fire. (Update: Well, it was exclusive. It’s now on YouTube as well.)
– Glenn Anderson
Check out this video of Boeing’s Phantom Ray UAV undergoing taxi tests at the company’s St. Louis, Mo., facility last month. I don’t know about you, but it’s the first time I’ve seen an stealthy-looking, unmanned jet on the move.
Boeing’s Phantom Works division has been developing the fighter-size plane on its own dime as a technology demonstrator for stealthy UAVs that can do everything from close air support missions to air-to-air refueling and ISR work.
The design actually is based on the company’s X-45 Unmanned Combat Aerial System (UCAS) prototype which lost the competition to supply the U.S. Navy with a stealthy combat drone to Northrop Grumman’s X-47B a couple of years ago.
The X-45 is supposed to be flying on the back of the NASA’s modified 747 space shuttle transporter today to Edwards Air Force Base in California
By Kevin Coleman – DefenseTech Cyber Warfare Correspondent
The WikiLeaks saga continues. The launch of ‘Operation Payback’ has not just opened the eyes of many bystanders but also the minds of cyber intelligence analysts, military cyber planners, data security practitioners and hacktivists and shown the complexities of this new domain of conflict. Many political and intelligence analysts have called WikiLeaks the 9/11 attack on U.S. international relations and the true impact will take years to really assess. However, it is clear that this massive breach of State Department electronic documents has had a chilling effect on sharing sensitive international communications.
The WikiLeaks supporters not only launched retaliatory cyber strikes against those taking action against WikiLeaks, but this past weekend announced they’re launching another web site, OpenLeaks, to help ensure they can continue to disclose sensitive and classified materials that have been the focus of attention for about 7 months. It is important to realize that the Wikileaks page on Facebook quickly had more than 1.2 million “likes”. This shows that many see WikiLeaks staff and their supports as modern day heroes. One person I talked to called Julian Assange a ‘Digital Robin Hood.’ While others state that OpenLeaks willundermine journalism. Still others are calling for espionage or spying charges to be brought against those that disclose classified materials that could harm U.S. national security and possibly put people’s lives at risk. All this shows one thing. We are way behind in rethinking digital asset protection for military data systems and the sensitive communications that are so critical to international diplomacy.
As NASA’s space shuttle program winds down, several former program officials put together this video tribute of the program. The film is shown from the perspective of some of the 100-plus cameras used to monitor launches for potential problems.
It has some amazing images of launches STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 with a bunch of interesting facts thrown in. Who knew that inertia keeps the solid rocket boosters sailing upward for 15 miles after they’re released from the shuttle?
Hope you’re enjoying the weekend.
Via Gizmodo.
The other day we showed you pictures of Russia’s prototype 5th gen fighter, theSukhoi T-50 PAK-FA. We mentioned that it’s a nice concept, but it remains to be seen if Russia can produce them in a timely manner. The former superpower has had serious trouble getting its nearly 20 year-old Su-34 design into service.
Well, here’s another example of Russia’s military tech ambitions being checked by reality.
From AFP:
The Russian military admitted Dec. 10 that it lacked the funds to deploy a powerful new armada of aircraft carriers as promised and that no more would be built for at least another decade.
“The state armaments program for 2011–2020 does not envision the construction of aircraft carriers,” an unnamed senior official in Russia’s defense ministry told the Interfax news agency.He said current funding plans allowed the military to come up with new designs but not proceed with actual construction.“Only then — after completing the advanced designs — can we examine the expediency of building aircraft carriers,” the official said.
It goes on to say that despite president Dimitri Medvedev’s call to modernize the Russian navy, no new carriers will be built before 2020.
By Kevin Coleman – DefenseTech Cyber Warfare Correspondent
Iran has been the target for lots of media attention over the Stuxnet worm. Information is leaking out about other cyber incidents that are being blamed on the same or similar Stuxnet cyber weapon. One such incident involved phantom radar images appearing during a Iranian military training exercise. Now information is circulating that assassinated Iranian physicist, Majid Shahriari was actually Iran’s foremost authority on Stuxnet and the leader of Iran’s Stuxnet investigation and defense team. Shahriari was killed when his car was attacked by men on motorbikes last month. Fellow Iranian nuclear scientist Fereydoon Abbasi was injured in a similar attack style the same day Shahriari was killed. Most reports say that an explosive was attached to their vehicles. Some are now saying that at least one car was shot up by the assailants. Looking at photos of one of the vehicles, you can see no evidence of an explosion, but multiple bullet holes are clearly visible. Most notable are a few bullet holes at head height in the windshield on the driver’s side.
We have long talked about convergence of cyber espionage, cyber attacks and cyber terrorism with the traditional world of espionage and now it is evident. Intelligence sources say that Iran has intensified its investigative efforts into this incident. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made accusations that “Western governments” and Israel of being behind the killing. Was Shahriari getting close to uncovering / disclosing where the code came from or who was behind the attack (an incredibly difficult task given the nature of cyberwarfare)? We may never know.
Well it’s finally confirmed. Those mystery tanks discovered by pirates who commandeered the MV Faina back in late 2008 were indeed meant for the rebel government in southern Sudan.
It’s long been speculated that the cargo of 32 T-72 tanks, 150 grenade launchers and six antiaircraft guns were being shipped from the Ukraine to Sudan. Now, the diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks (love em or hate em) definitively show the weapons were en route to the war torn nation. In fact, the tanks were just the latest shipment in a large-scale effort to arm the breakaway government with modern tools of war. An effort that the U.S. tacitly approved of and then changed its mind about when the Obama administration took charge.
Today’s New York Times describes the mystery as the partial result of a vague U.S. policy on how to handle the split up of Africa’s largest country:
According to several secret State Department cables made public by WikiLeaks, the tanks not only were headed to southern Sudan, but they were the latest installment of several underground arms shipments. By the time the freighter was seized, 67 T-72 tanks had already been delivered to bolster southern Sudan’s armed forces against the government in Khartoum, an international pariah for its human rights abuses in Darfur.
The breakaway government in the south and Khartoum signed a peace treaty in 2005 allowing the south to arm itself with some modern weaponry and paving the way for a referendum on southern independence scheduled for Jan. 9, 2011.
Naturally, the U.S. knew about the deal. It even helped the south buy communications gear and nonlethal weapons as well as provided “combat arms soldier training,” according to the article.
It goes on to say the U.S. found out about the shipments of heavy weapons in 2008 and wasn’t thrilled about them. But wasn’t exactly in the mood to stop them, either. The Bush administration basically asked everyone involved to keep it on the D.L. After all, the weapons were going to protect a people who had been repeatedly ravaged by the north.
The U.S. Navy might achieve the biggest breakthrough in catapult design in more than 50 years this month if it can launch an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet from its new magnetic catapult system.
According to Chris Cavas at Defense News, the sea service is prepping a Super Hornet to be launched from the electromagnetic launch system (EMALS) before Christmas.
“The shot should take place within a couple of weeks,” said Rob Koon, a spokesman for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). Asked if the engineers were trying to make the launch before Christmas, Koon replied, “that’s what they’re hoping for.”The Electro-magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) is a critical piece of technology that will be installed in the new Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, the first of which is now under construction. If the system isn’t ready in time, the Navy would have to revert to older steam catapults to launch aircraft from the ships, a move that would mean costly delays and redesigns.
Stuxnet exploited weaknesses in Windows 7. Windows 7 is made by Microsoft. Microsoft is based in the United States. Stuxnet hit computers running Windows 7 in Iran. Those computers were being used to help Iran make nuclear materials.
Just sayin.
Is it a secret way of infiltrating our enemies systems as some in the comments suggest this post is meant to say?Probably not.
Is it an interesting anecdote about our globalized economy that shows one of the most famous U.S. companies’ products is being used for a program the U.S. is dead-set on shutting down. Yes.
It’s especially interesting when all we hear about are the sanctions and other efforts being levied against Iran aimed at halting the country’s nuclear ambitions.
Of course we don’t want to restrict the sale of Windows around the world. This is just one of those unavoidable occurances that makes you stop for a second in the midst of a serious story and say, “how bout that.” And a blog, which this is, is a great forum to air such things.
Check out these pics of Russia’s attempt at building a rival to the F-22; the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA.
This is the jet being developed to replace Russia’s rundown fleet of MiG-29s and and oldest Su-27s. It’s also going to serve as the basis for India’s first Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft; essentially a two seat version of the T-50 built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
While there’s not a ton of info available on the jet, it’s believed that it will come equipped with all the standard features of modern fighters: datalinks, stealth, AESA radars, the ability to fly supersonically without using the afterburner (supercruising), internal weapons bays and 3D thrust vectoring engines, among other features.
We’ll see if Sukoi is actually able to deliver on the bird in a timely manner. It took nearly two decades after its first flight for the Su-34 fighter-bomber to enter production, and that plane was based off the already in-service Su-27.
Well done to Steve Trimble at Flight Global for finding the pics.
Read more: http://defensetech.org/#ixzz185jGRCL5
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