U.S., Russia, And China Are In A Race To Have 'Super Soldiers' And Artificial Intelligence

Next Big Future: USA, Russia and China among early entrants in race for Super Soldiers and Artificial Intelligence.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work warned that America would soon lose its military competitive advantage if it does not pursue technologies such as employing artificial intelligence.

Altering human beings from the inside to more effectively fight in combat is claimed to presents ethical dilemmas for American scientists and military planners.

Work says those ethical concerns typically don't apply to authoritarian governments like Russia's or China's, but their lack of hesitation in developing EHOs may force America's hand.

Read more ....

CSM Editor: I always find it fascinating that what was once labelled science fiction is now being seriously developed today. This is one of those cases.

U.S. Navy To Test It's Newest Laser Weapon In The Persian Gulf This Summer

U.S. Navy To Test Laser Weapon Aboard Ship In Persian Gulf -- L.A. Times

The Navy plans to install a laser weapon prototype on a ship this summer for at-sea testing in the Persian Gulf.

The technology, called the Laser Weapon System, will be the first of its kind to be deployed, the Navy said.

The idea is that the laser could zap dangerous swarming small boats and flying drones while on the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. Its power also can be scaled down, presenting the Navy a non-lethal alternative to ward off threats such as pirates, terrorists and smugglers.

Read more ....

More News On U.S. Navy Preparing To Test It's Newest Laser Weapon In The Persian Gulf This Summer

Navy laser weapon with 'video game-like controller' set to deploy -- CNet
NNS: Navy's Laser Weapon Ready for Summer Deployment -- Pacific News Center
U.S. Navy to Test New Laser Weapon at Sea This Summer -- PC Magazine
Navy Engineers To Deploy Laser Weapon Later This Summer -- Ubergizmo

How 3D Printers Will Revolutionise The Manufacture Of Deadly Weapons

Making Guns In Your Garage: How 3D Printers Will Revolutionise The Manufacture Of Deadly Weapons -- The Telegraph

In the very near future, someone will be killed with a gun not bought from a dealer or a dodgy bloke in a pub, but printed at home in metal and plastic with a 3D printer. The tools necessary to replicate a deadly weapon will soon be affordable to someone toiling away at home. The cost of 3D printers has dropped substantially: models are available for as little as £400. Extremely polished designs such as the MakerBot Replicator 2 and Form Labs Form1 reveal how close the technology is to becoming a mainstream consumer proposition. Read more .... My Comment: The below video explains how this incredible tech works. One can only wonder what future developments will hold.

No Dark Knight's Flying "Bat" For The U.S. Military

'Dark Knight Rises' crew members lifted up what is allegedly a flying bat mobile in the Financial District to shoot a scene for the Batman movie on Sunday. John Taggart for New York Daily News

US Military Shoots Down Dark Knight's Flying "Bat" Idea -- Live Science

When the Dark Knight rises to defend Gotham once more, he literally takes to the skies in a flying vehicle known simply as the Bat. The new nonlethal weapon in Batman's arsenal can hover like a helicopter and pull off aerial maneuvers worthy of "Top Gun" fighter jets — a combination that may seem almost too good to be true.

Read more ....

My Comment: I understand .... it's just too far fetch.

A Future Military Plane?

Batman’s Got A Brand New Plane -- Popular Mechanics

Batman’s fleet of incredible vehicles gets a new addition in The Dark Knight Rises: A plane called the Bat. Production designer Nathan Crowley and special effects coordinator Chris Corbould talk about using real-life military vehicles as inspiration and how they made the Bat fly.

Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies begin in the director’s garage. "We always get into a film by designing the vehicle," production designer Nathan Crowley says. For The Dark Knight Rises, out July 20, Nolan wanted Batman to add an aircraft to his fleet. "I like jump jets and Chris likes the Osprey," Crowley says. "So we said, okay, let’s try and mix the two and make the craft look like the Batmobile."

Read more ....

My Comment: A future military plane .... no .... just in our dreams.

Fiction May One Day Become Reality

Pentagon: That Fictional Drone From That Unreleased Video Game Sure Looks Cool -- Popular Science

Art imitates life they say, and every now and then life imitates art. Which is only slightly terrifying when the art being imitated is a Call of Duty title and the real-world entity doing the imitating is the Pentagon. A fictional drone from a video game that hasn’t even been released yet has inspired a DoD office to consider pursuing the same drone in real life, Brookings Institute 21st Century Defense Initiative director and all-around drones guru Peter Singer tells Innovation News Daily.

Read more ....

My Comment: After watching this video, I had only one question. When are the soldiers in the field going to get this tech.

The Russian's Have A 'Zombie Gun'

Putin Targets Foes With 'Zombie' Gun Which Attack Victims' Central Nervous System -- Daily Mail

* Could be used against Russia's enemies and perhaps its own dissidents

Mind-bending ‘psychotronic’ guns that can effectively turn people into zombies have been given the go-ahead by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The futuristic weapons – which will attack the central nervous system of their victims – are being developed by the country’s scientists.

They could be used against Russia’s enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade.

Read more ....

My Comment: I suspect the Americans (and maybe the Chinese) have the same tech.

U.S. Navy Test-Fires First Working Prototype Railgun

The Ultimate Bullet Train: Watch The Amazing Video Of The Railgun That Can Hit Targets 100 Miles Away At Seven Times The Speed Of Sound -- Daily Mail

* Futuristic weapon is another step closer to being deployed
* Navy reveals industry-built prototype is now being tested
* Uses magnetic field and electric current to generate energy

A futuristic supersonic weapon which fires ammunition up to 100 miles is another step closer to being deployed by the U.S. Navy.

Officials have revealed an industry-built prototype of the electromagnetic railgun is now being tested at its Naval Surface Warfare Centre Dahlgren Division in northern Virginia.

The weapon, which it is hoped will be fitted on ships from 2017, uses a magnetic field and electric current, instead of chemicals, to generate energy to fire the rounds.

Read more ....

More News On the U.S. Navy's Electromagnetic Railgun

New Navy Rail Gun Fires 50 Miles With No Propellant: Latest Tests Use Smaller Guns -- Aol Defense
Navy close on making super-powerful railgun -- CBS
It's real! Navy test-fires first working prototype railgun -- FOX News
U.S. Navy Test Fires 32-Megajoule Railgun, Could See Service by 2020 -- Daily Tech
Video: Navy Fires Off Its New Weaponized Railgun -- Danger Room
Video: Flamethrowing Navy Railgun Blasts Terrifying Projectiles Through Superheated Air -- Popular Science
The Military’s Shipwrecking Railgun Just Got Really Real -- Gizmodo
Navy Unleashes Its Electromagnetic Railgun Outside of the Lab [Video] -- Scientific American

US Soldiers Will Soon Be Able To See Through Concrete Walls

MIT Tech Helps U.S. Soldiers See Through Concrete Walls -- FOX News

Invisible tanks, Iron-Man suits, and now x-ray vision?

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing an experimental radar system that will allow U.S. troops in combat to see through walls.

In recent tests held at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, the radar successfully showed humans moving behind solid concrete.

The researchers’ device is an unassuming array of antenna in two rows — eight receiving elements on top, 13 transmitting ones below — and some computing equipment, all mounted onto a movable cart. But project leader Gregory Charvat and his team believe the technology could have powerful implications for “urban combat situations.”

Read more ....

More News On How MIT Tech Will help The Military To See Through Walls

MIT tests wall-piercing radar for US soldiers -- MSNBC
MIT researchers devise see-through-wall technology -- CNN
MIT Radar System Can "See" Through Walls -- Daily Tech
MIT radar gives real-time video through concrete walls -- TG Daily
MIT's New Radar Technology Lets You See Through Walls (VIDEO) -- Huffington Post
MIT's X-Ray Vision System Can See Straight Through Concrete Walls -- Popular Science
New radar sees through walls, takes video -- UPI

A Motorised Skateboard That Looks Like A Tank

Coming To A Battlefield Soon: The Incredible Motorised Skateboard That Looks Like A Tank -- The Daily Mail

It looks like the cross between a small tank, a Segway and a skateboard.

But this odd-looking contraption is being touted as the next must-have vehicle for U.S. soldiers in warzones.

The DTV Shredder can handle any kind of terrain at high speed and its low centre of gravity ‘makes it ideal for reconnaissance, rescue/recovery, mobile surveillance, and medical evacuation operations’, it is claimed.

Read more ....

My Comment: OK .... I am impressed. My nephew now wants to get his hands on one of them.

Cloaking Device In The Near Future?

The invisibility cloak is the first to work in three dimensions, but has some way to go before it can make the USS Enterprise vanish. Photograph: Ronald Grant

Cloaking Device Makes Objects Invisible – To Infrared Light Anyway -- The Guardian

For now the device only makes objects invisible to infrared light, but it paves the way for a cloaking material that could hide vehicles, high-security facilities or unsightly buildings.

Scientists are a step closer to creating a Star Trek-style cloaking device after demonstrating a material that makes objects beneath it appear to vanish.

The material was used to hide a bump on a surface by interfering with the way light bounced off it, making it seem as though neither the cloak nor the bump was there.

Read more ....

Future Soldiers May Get Brain Boosters And Digital Buddies

Caption: The Future Soldier Initiative. Credit: U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Design and Engineering Center in Massachusetts.

From Live Science:

The soldiers of the future might controversially boost their brains with drugs and prosthetics, augment their strength with mechanical exoskeletons, and have artificially intelligent "digital buddies" at their beck and call, according to the U.S. Army's Future Soldier Initiative.

The project is the latest attempt from the U.S. Army research lab in Natick, Mass., to brainstorm what soldiers might carry into the battlefield of tomorrow. A special emphasis of its concept is augmenting mental performance.

Read more ....

My Comment: An interesting look at what "super soldiers" may look like in the future.

10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Behold the Laser Avenger, a cannon that could be used to take down incoming aircraft. Boeing was able to shoot a drone out of the sky with the hummer-mounted laser, even though it’s not particularly high-powered. It cooked the remote-controlled aircraft using a somewhat feeble 1-kilowatt beam. More recently, the company shot down another UAV using a low-power laser paired with its Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or Matrix, system during a test in White Sands, New Mexico.

From The Danger Room:

Sure, the gear may look like it came straight out of Avatar or Battlestar Galactica. But all of the laser weapons, robots, sonic blasters and puke rays pictured here are real. Some of these weapons have already found their way onto the battlefield. If the rest of this sci-fi arsenal follows, war may soon be unrecognizable.

Read on for a look at some of these futuristic weapons being tested today.

Read more ....

Electromagnetic Pulse Cuts Through Steel In 200 Milliseconds

The Riddle of Steel Freedom Steel International

From Popular Science:

Cutting through solid steel with flaming bacon certainly has its appeal, but for large-scale industrial processes, the Fraunhofer institute thinks electromagnetic pulses may work better than the other white heat. Case in point: their new electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device that cuts through steel faster than a laser, and cheaper than a machine tool.

Read more ....

Long-Range Taser Raises Fears Of Shock And Injury

A new, long-range Taser weapon could be launched from standard 40-millimetre grenade launchers (Image: SGT April L. Johnson/US DoD)

From New Scientist:

INCREASING the distance between yourself and a potentially dangerous assailant is always a good idea - even if your ultimate aim is to render them insensible. That appears to be the thinking behind a Pentagon project, now in its final stages, to perfect a projectile capable of delivering an electric shock to incapacitate a person tens of metres away. It will be fired from a standard 40-millimetre grenade launcher.

Read more ....

My Comment: A useful weapon if your goal is to incapacitate and capture a certain target.

The Next Generation Of Stealth

A cloaking device is made of copper rings, each surrounded by 10 layers of meta-material. (© Duke Photography www.dukephoto.duke.edu)

Now You See It, Now You Don’t -- Air & Space Smithsonian

Blinding us with science: the next generation of stealth.

Look down a long stretch of highway on a summer afternoon and in the distance a pool of water seems to wait for you, glistening under the hot sun. It’s only an illusion—Mother Nature’s version of a practical joke. The difference in density between the asphalt-heated air near the surface and the cooler air above acts like a lens, bending light waves as they pass from one layer to the next to reflect the blue sky and hide both the blacktop and any vehicles at the far end of the road behind a shimmering curtain.

Read more ....

My Comment: The technical geek inside of me loves stories like this one .... makes you wonder what the ultimate limits to stealth are.

IBM Files Patent for Bullet Dodging Bionic Body Armor

From Tech Fragments:

IBM has filed a patent (US 7484451) for Bionic Body Armor, that could essentially allow us to dodge bullets like Neo in The Matrix. The armor would scan areas for incoming projectiles and when one is detected the system would deliver a shock to the muscles causing a swift reflexive action away from the projectile. Here's what the patent describes the body armor as:

Read more ....

My Comment: Body armor of the future .... now.

Step Made Toward Invisible Electronics

The new helmet for the F35 fighter. It's also the Heads Up Display, or HUD. Meaning the pilot will get the data he needs to fly and flight the aircraft - displayed on the inside of his visor. (Photo from The Donovan)

From Live Science:

Researchers have made an advance toward a long-sought goal of building "invisible electronics" and transparent displays.

The work could eventually lead to better heads-up displays for pilots or even windshield displays and cars, as well as electronic paper that could deliver all the contents of a magazine or a newspaper on one, ever-changing, portable and perhaps even disposable sheet. Another goal: wearable electronic clothing displays.

The scientists, led by Chongwu Zhou and colleagues at UCLA developed tiny, transparent electronic circuits they say are more powerful than similar devices developed in recent years.

The work was detailed in the Jan. 27 issue of ACS Nano, a monthly journal.

In the new study, Chongwu Zhou and colleagues point out that although scientists have previously developed nano-sized transparent circuits, previous versions are limited to a handful of materials that are transparent semiconductors.

Read more ....

The Science Of The Future Of War

(Photo from Infowars)

From Blog Science:

TODAY'S MOST BRUTAL WARS are also the most primal. They are fought with machetes in West Africa, with fire and rape and fear in Darfur, and with suicide bombs and improvised explosive devices in Israel, Iraq, and elsewhere. But as horrifying as these conflicts are, they are not the greatest threat to our survival as a species. We humans are a frightening animal. Throughout our species’s existence, we have used each new technology we have developed to boost the destructive power of our ancient predisposition for killing members of our own species. From hands and teeth tearing at isolated individuals, to coordinated raids with clubs and bows and arrows, to pitched battles, prolonged sieges, and on into the age of firearms, the impulse has remained the same but as the efficiency of our weapons has increased, the consequences have grown ever more extreme.

Read more ....

My Comment: A long essay .... but a fascinating one to read. Grab a cup of coffee, and take your time reading it.