A Look At How The U.S. Navy Transports Damaged Ships

A load of ship: The Blue Marlin gives the USS Cole a piggy-back as it heads to Mississippi

The Day One Boat Gave Another A Piggyback Following Suicide Bomber Attack On US Navy Ship -- Daily Mail

Here is something you don't see every day - one ship giving another a piggy-back.

This intriguing image is not a Photoshopped picture or a disaster of Titanic proportions, instead it is the Blue Marlin, a 217-metre, semi-submersible ship, designed to carry tremendous loads, giving a helping hand to the USS Cole.

The ship has been damaged by an Al Qaeda suicide bomber while anchored in Aden, Yemen, in October 2000 - and it is not easy to get the ship home with a 40ft gash in the side.

Following the attack, the U.S. Navy hired the Blue Marlin to get the Cole back home - and probably gave sailors on passing ships something of a shock.

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My Comment: That's one big boat.

The U.S. Army And It's Smartphones

Nett Warrior Returns From The Dead -- DoD Buzz

WHITE STANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — Most had left the Army’s Nett Warrior program and it’s futuristic eye scope in the expensive trash heap of Future Combat Systems. But it lives on here where soldiers test the glorified smartphones that Army leaders want its squad leaders carrying on the battlefield.

Soldiers like Staff Sgt. Jesus Vasquez and Sgt. First Class Frederick Chinlever wear Motorola Atrix smartphones inside a green case mounted to their chests connected to Rifleman Radios on their backs. They can’t make calls on it, but they can see fellow soldiers’ positions, mark IED and enemy positions, and even text each other.

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My Comment: The technology is already out there .... but as well use it.

Can We Trust Killer Robots?

The X-47B, the Navy's prototype for an unmanned strike plane. The aircraft may eventually be able to set off on a flight plan, identify targets and fire weapons. Northrup Grunmman

Could We Trust Killer Robots? -- Wall Street Journal

A drone may never have a sense of morality, but it might perform better than a human soldier in sparing the innocent.

In the year 2015, somewhere over the tribal territories of Pakistan, an American MQ-9 Reaper drone patrols a complex "kill zone"—an area of terrorist activity in which large numbers of civilians are also present. But on this mission, the drone isn't piloted from afar. It's on its own.

The aircraft moves closer to gather information about a potential target. Infrared cameras, heat sensors and other tools of surveillance determine whether the target is indeed a militant, examining, for instance, whether he seems ready to attack. The drone's computer system ranks the suspect on a scale from -1 (a noncombatant) to +1 (a confirmed combatant). Having determined that no children or other civilians are in the vicinity, and that everything else is in order, it chooses a weapon and fires. It then assesses the damage and either fires again or, if the enemy is dead, continues its patrol.

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My Comment: Such weapon systems will perform according to what their designers plan .... so yes .... we can trust them .... but to a point .... more specifically .... those who program such systems are the ones who will be held accountable if things go wrong.

Tiny Satellites Serving As Soldiers' Eyes

Swarm Of Tiny Satellites Would Serve As Soldiers' Eyes -- Space.com

Enemy fighters use commercial satellite images to plot attacks on U.S. troops, but most U.S. soldiers can't get the same images because of technical or classification restrictions. The Pentagon says that problem can be gotten around through swarms of small satellites capable of providing on-demand battlefield images for any U.S. soldier with a tablet.

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Update #1: DARPA seeks to develop small reconnaissance satellites that are cheaper to build than UAVs -- Military & Aerospace
Update #2: A new network of satellites -- CNet

My Comment: Makes you wonder ....

.... Enemy fighters use commercial satellite images to plot attacks on U.S. troops, but most U.S. soldiers can't get the same images because of technical or classification restrictions.

Advances In "intelligence Clothing" Could Save U.S. Military Lives

Photo By U.S. Army Spc. Sara Wakai

Intelligent Clothing Could Save US Military Lives -- Yahoo News/Live Science

When soldiers fall wounded on future battlefields, their smart uniforms may instantly report the location of gunshot wounds or even detect traces of nuclear, biological or chemical attacks in blood and sweat. That intelligent clothing could make a lifesaving difference in medical care and give U.S. commanders a sense of battles unfolding as casualties mount.

The smart uniforms would include medical sensors built into the fabric to monitor the health of U.S. troops, according to a notice issued by the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) on May 7. Such clothes would not only detect where wounds occurred and how deep they go, but also report a fallen soldier's location with GPS coordinates and pass along other critical information for battlefield medics.

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My Comment: This research looks very promising.

U.S. Army Wants To Give War Robots More Power To 'Make Their Own Decisions'

Giving war robots 'autonomy' sparks fears of independent killing machines similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? U.S. Army Wants To Give War Robots More Power To 'Make Their Own Decisions' -- Daily Mail

* Trucks that 'drive themselves' already under test
* Military is testing 'autonomous' robots that follow soldiers
* Robots will use laser-imaging to build their own 3D image of the world
* Will be 'supervised' by soldiers

Armies of robots including dog-like creatures walking on four legs and huge lumbering trucks are the stuff of science fiction - specifically, bleak films such as The Terminator series.

But the U.S. military not only wants more robots - it wants more 'autonomous' robots, robots free to make their own decisions on the battlefield.

A new robot is described as 'like a dog' that follows troops on the battlefield - and future models will use technologies such as laser imaging to build their own picture of the world.

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Update #1: U.S. military embraces robots with greater autonomy -- Reuters
Update #2: Factbox: U.S. military robot systems in development -- Reuters

My Comment: Science fiction becoming reality .... albeit slowly.

The U.S. Army Wants A Magic Bullet

Looking to the future: The U.S Army wants small businesses to develop a floating non-lethal bullet

U.S Army Floats The Idea Of A 'Magic Bullet' That Hangs Around In The Air Waiting To Strike -- Daily Mail

It sounds like something from a science fiction film, but soon, a ‘magic bullet’ that floats around in the air waiting for its target could become science fact.

This far-fetched sounding piece of ammunition isn’t designed to kill, though.

Called ‘Nonlethal Warhead for Miniature Organic Precision Munitions’, there isn’t even a prototype yet - but it’s on the U.S Army’s wish list.

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More News On The U.S. Army's Search For A "Magic Bullet"

Army’s ‘Magic Bullet’ Will Hang Out in Midair, But Won’t Kill You -- Danger Room
The Army Is Pushing The Limit With This Insane 'Magic Bullet' -- Business Insider
Army Wants NonLethal 'Magic Bullet' Drone for Soldiers -- Live Science
Soon, ‘magic bullet’ that floats around in mid-air but won’t kill you -- Zee News

The Army's Future Truck?

Future Army Truck Inspired by the iPhone -- Danger Room

The Army’s next truck should be smart, flexible, user-friendly, partially autonomous and affordable. In other words, the automotive equivalent of a gadget from Apple. At a trade conference in Virginia on Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Stephen Farmen, the chief of U.S. Army transportation, held up an iPhone. “How do we put the kind of power and technology like this into a wheeled vehicle and hit the right price point?” Farmen asked, according to a report by National Defense.

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My Comment: Interesting .... but still far away from implementation.

Robots And Other Tech To Evacuate Wounded Soldiers (Maybe)

Airmule

Wanted: Robots To Evacuate Wounded Soldiers -- Popular Mechanics

A Pentagon study looks at the future technology for evacuating wounded soldiers, including UAV rescuers, human hibernation, and more.

On the battlefield of the future, a wounded soldier could be scooped up by a robot, placed in a specially equipped drone, and then flown to the closest manned-medical center, where he or she is diagnosed with automated equipment that can deliver treatment without human intervention. Of course, that brings up the question: If robots can do all that, will there be human soldiers on the battlefield?

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My Comment: A summary of what is in the works.

US Navy Is Developing 'Intelligent' Uniforms

One of the U.S. military's many attempts to design a uniform of the future. Photo: RDECOM

New Navy Uniform Could Monitor Sailors’ Pee for Signs of Nuclear Attack -- The Danger Room

The military’s uniforms will probably never be runway ready. But in the future, a soldier’s threads might very well be quite a bit sharper.

As in, more intelligent. At least if the Office of Naval Research gets its way. On ONR’s latest call for research proposals, the organization is asking for uniforms to be capable of measuring soldiers’ vital signs, detecting the location and severity of their bullet wounds and even transmitting their location to medical personnel via GPS sensors implanted into clothing fabric.

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My Comment: I expect the fruits of this research to one day also show up in regular clothing.

Robots That Can Be Blown Up But Keep On Working

Bombs Away Click here to get a bigger view of this amazing image. Reuters/Saad Shalash

The Robots That Can Be Blown Up and Keep On Detecting IEDs -- Popular Science

The homemade bombs known as IEDs accounted for 60 percent of all U.S. military injuries in Iraq and have killed more than 21,000 Iraqi civilians. Last November, a month before the last U.S. troops departed, Iraq’s federal bomb squad paraded with bomb-disposal robots in Baghdad. QinetiQ North America has sold 16 of the $100,000 remote-controlled Talons to the Iraqi police.

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My Comment: Better robots than our dedicated soldiers.

Should We Blame Robots For Mistakes On The Battlefield?

Credit: Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab / University of Washington

Should Robots Be Blamed For Battlefield Mistakes? -- Discovery News

If a robot in combat accidentally kills a civilian, who is to blame?

This isn't as straightforward of a question as it sounds. A team of scientists presented a study at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction and found that although robots don't have free will, people sometimes treat them as if they do.

The researchers had 40 undergraduate students play a scavenger hunt game with a human-like robot named Robovie. The robot was controlled remotely, but it appeared autonomous to the students.

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My Comment: I would blame both .... and if the programmers did their jobs properly .... the majority of the blame should then be on the human operators.

Brain Injuries On The Rise For US Troops (Infographic)

Source:LiveScience

Here Comes The Robot Subs

The Navy will send a robotic sub -- shown here as a model -- to hunt buried mines. Photo: Spencer Ackerman/Wired

Navy Will Give Nearsighted Minehunter Robotic Glasses -- Danger Room

The Navy is building a fleet of mine-hunting ships that investigators say aren’t all that hot at finding mines. So in the coming years, those ships are going to get drone supplements to dive deep below the sea to spot the underwater weapons. Think of ‘em as pairs of robotic glasses.

This is a scale model of the Navy’s newest drone sub, called the Knifefish. Manufactured by General Dynamics, the Navy unveiled it for the first time on Monday at its annual Sea Air Space convention just outside Washington, D.C.

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My Comment: The US Navy is bit late in the drone revolution ... but it appears that they are catching up very quickly.

What Happened To The USS Scorpion?

USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Wikipedia

Experts Out To Solve Deep-Sea Mystery Of The USS Scorpion -- USA Today

Shipwreck disaster experts are calling for a deep-sea expedition to a lost U.S. nuclear attack sub, the USS Scorpion, in an effort to verify a new theory on what caused the Cold War vessel to sink.

The Scorpion was lost May 22, 1968, killing 99 men, about 400 miles south of the Azores Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The sub has been inspected by undersea recovery teams, including a visit in 1985 by oceanographer Robert Ballard before his team's discovery of the Titanic shipwreck.

The cause of the sub's loss remains hotly disputed. A Navy Court of Inquiry found "the cause of the loss cannot be definitively ascertained."

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My Comment: I am surprised that it has taken them this long to make the decision to now go out and find the definitive answer on why did the USS Scorpion sink to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1968.

Military ‘Battle Lab’ Relies On Solar Energy

Image via U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen

Military ‘Battle Lab’ Cashes In On Solar Savings -- Earth Techling

No one ever said training for battle was easy, nor energy-efficient. The “Battle Lab” is a U.S. military facility in New Jersey where more than 20,000 soldiers prepare and train for battle. The lab includes shooting ranges, vehicle rollover trainers and other high-tech simulators. But those high-tech tools suck up millions of kilowatts of power.

Now, more than a quarter of the training facility’s power is being provided by renewable energy sources. The Army Corps of Engineers along with the help of contractor P & S Construction helped complete a solar power project onsite at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Photovoltaic solar panels were mounted to the roof of the Battle Lab, covering approximately 71,000 square feet.

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Here Comes The Humanoid Robots

As if existing robots, like the Army's Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR), weren't humanoid enough -- Darpa wants next-gen robots to resemble us even more. Photo: U.S. Army

Military Wants Humanoid Robots In The Driver's Seat -- MSNBC/Innovation

New job demands include steering a vehicle and climbing a ladder.

A U.S. military agency once focused on self-driving robot cars has turned its attention to humanoid robots that could roam tomorrow's battlefields. An upcoming announcement suggests the military wants robots that can steer a vehicle from the driver's seat, use a key to open a locked door, climb a ladder and perform handyman repairs.

The robots must also have the brains to carry out their jobs with only loose supervision from humans, based on the unofficial leak of a new Grand Challenge for humanoid robots hosted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Such details emerged from a talk by Gill Pratt of DARPA at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Industry Day held on March 20, according to the robotic news portal Hizook.

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More News On The U.S. Military wanting Humanoid Robots

DARPA seeks humanoid robots in Grand Challenge -- CNET
Darpa’s Next Grand Challenge: Build Us Lifelike, Humanoid Robots -- Danger Room
Humanoid Robot Creation Becomes New Focus for DARPA -- Tech & Biz
DARPA Wants Humanoid Robots That Can Drive Tractors, Open Doors and Save the Day -- Popular Science
Pentagon eyes 'human like' handyman robots: But why? -- RT
DARPA's next Grand Challenge to focus on humanoid robots -- Endgadget
The U.S military wants YOU, to build a humanoid robot -- Ubergizmo
New DARPA Grand Challenge to make humanoid robots -- Next Big Future

Why Did DARPA Buy This Bomb Tech?

Dugan at TED

Investigation: Despite Repeated Failures, DARPA Bought Director's Family's Lousy Bomb Tech -- Popular Science

Generally when PopSci writes about DARPA we do so with enthusiasm, as the Pentagon’s far-out research arm tends to prod at the edges of what seems possible, even when it fails spectacularly. But when it fails institutionally, we have to acknowledge that even the storied Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is at a fundamental level a bureaucracy prone to the same problems and inefficiencies as any other bureaucracy. With that, point you toward a piece by the crew over at Danger Room, who today tell the tale of a seemingly huge DARPA fail.

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My Comment: Favoritism at play here?

More Advancements In Body Armor

MetCel's body armor inserts protect soldiers against the blunt-force trauma of a bullet hitting body armor. CREDIT: MetCel

Startup's Hybrid Body Armor Softens Blow to Troops -- Live Science

Modern body armor capable of stopping bullets still can't protect a soldier from the full force of a bullet's impact — a body trauma responsible for most U.S. military gunshot injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. That battlefield danger has driven one U.S. startup to create a lightweight, protective material worn under body armor, similar to how ancient warriors once wore padding beneath their chain mail or plate armor.

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My Comment: Faster please.

Air Force Space Command Is Looking For A Few Good Cyber Warriors

AF Cyber Boss Wants High Quality Troops -- Military.com

The Air Force’s top cyber commander warned Thursday that the military may have a tough time finding all the qualified people it needs to stay ahead in the increasingly important world of attacking and defending networks.

Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, said that only a small percentage of people graduate with technical college degrees every year in the U.S. and of those an even smaller percentage are eligible to get the security clearance they’d need to become Defense Department or government cyber-operators.

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Update: The cyber war after next -- DoD Buzz

My Comment: For more info on Air Force Space Command, go here.

On a side note .... 'Hacktivists' stole 58% of thieved data in 2011.