A week after the U.S. lost a drone over the Afghan-Iran frontier, the Air Force announced Tuesday morning that one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones crashed at the Seychelles International Airport earlier in the day. “The MQ-9 was not …
Weapons
Is Leon Panetta the Right Man to be Secretary of Defense?
For several months, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has been using extreme rhetoric to characterize cuts in the Pentagon budget beyond the $450 billion reduction over ten years he has already accepted. With the failure of the …
Newtonian Physics
Electro-magnetic pulse. EMP. A nuclear shock wave. The ultimate doomsday weapon. Whatever you call it, the notion of detonating a nuclear blast high in the atmosphere to fry the electronics of what is underneath has been a …
$134 million
Iran’s Got Our Drone: Distraction or Disaster?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vorWHmk38yE]
Let’s say you’re outside walking around when you’re hit in the head by an iPhone that falls from the sky. Just how lucky are you? Pretty darn lucky, especially if you were trying to bring it down. But now that you’ve got it, how much can you learn from it? …
$60 Billion
Here’s Looking At You, Kim
In a not-so-subtle full battle-rattle feather-flash toward North Korea, a flock of U.S. F-16s readies for war in full nose-to-tail “elephant walk” mode at South Korea’s Kusan air base. “What we’ve done today is essentially …
What’s In a (Ship’s) Name
Super Committee Failure Hits Military Hard
Politicians can shrug off the congressional Super Committee’s failure to agree on meaningful deficit reduction. To them, it’s just another budget gimmick that didn’t pan out. But for the U.S. military, the Super Committee …
War Prize: Iraq Orders Its F-16s
Three weeks before all U.S. troops are out of Iraq, the U.S. Air Force has just awarded – on behalf of Baghdad – an $835 million contract to Lockheed Martin for 18 F-16 jet fighters. Even before the deal was inked, Iraqi …
Iran: We Shot Down That Missing U.S. Drone
The Iranian government declared on Dec. 4 that it had downed a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone over the eastern part of the country. U.S. officials quickly disputed the claim but acknowledged that one of their drones had been flying …
Pentagon Considering Improved “Groin Armor”
We’ve reported on the nasty wounds that improvised explosive devices are inflicting on our troops. Not only do they lead to amputations, but they can damage the genitals, especially when troops are dismounted — out of their vehicles — and on foot when IEDs detonate, often beneath them. So it’s good news that the Pentagon on …
The Human Drone
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4arnATc04U]
Who needs unmanned aerial vehicles when you’ve got Yves Rossy at the helm of a manned aerial vehicle in a Swiss air show?