Via flightglobal

US Air Force pilots flyingBoeing F-15s “dominated” and “amazed” Indian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKI pilots in a recent exercise, but still expect that legacy F-15s andLockheed Martin F-16s will swiftly lose their competitive edge to the Russian export fighters.

Those remarks came in an explicitly candid assessment by an unidentified USAF pilot posted on 4 November on the YouTube online video sharing service. “Now what I’m scared of is Congress is going to hear that and go – ‘Great, we don’t need to buy any more airplanes. No, no, no, no,’” the pilot tells an audience that includes retired air force leaders.

He adds that “it’s only a matter of time” before the IAF Su-30 pilots learn how to overcome the manoeuvre used so successfully against them at the international Red Flag exercise.

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Via defense-update

A project for the construction of two new aircraft carriers was launched with the signature of contracts worth around £3 billion, between the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), the newly-formed UK maritime Joint Venture, BVT Surface Fleet, and the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, assigned for the unprecedented job. The contract was signed onboard the Royal Fleet Flagship HMS Ark Royal, one of the Royal Navy’s existing aircraft carriers.

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Via popularmechanics

It could be a rule of modern urban warfare: Send the robot in first. After all, it’s better to risk an unmanned air or ground vehicle than an infantry squad. While the United States has already deployed thousands of robots in Iraq and Afghanistan, its allies are lagging behind. Following the lead of DARPA’s high-profile Grand Challenge and Urban Challenge, both Singapore and the United Kingdom are staging robotics competitions this August to develop their own autonomous war machines.

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Information Processing Technology Office

Via defenseindustrydaily.com

According to DARPA, Deep Green will:

”…aid in battle command and commander’s visualization by creating technologies that make it easier for the commander to articulate options to consider and anticipate the possible futures that result from those options. This proactive analysis will help predict which possible futures are becoming more likely – before they occur. Given that information, the commander can make better decisions and focus planning efforts (the generation of future branches and sequels) on where they can be the most useful.”

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Sleek designs, robotic aircraft and next-generation weapons will make the ships of the future the most formidable ever

Via popsci.com

It’s hard to tell what kind of wars the future will bring, but one thing is certain: Robots will be doing much of the fighting. In fact, they already are. Last year, aerial drones flew 258,502 hours of missions—up from 27,201 in 2002. Spending on unmanned aircraft systems by the U.S. military is expected to hit $3.76 billion by 2010. Robotic warfare, long the stuff of science fiction, is now a reality.

That’s why, late last year, the British defense company BAE Systems released plans for a fast-moving, specially built home at sea for these robot warriors. That ship is the UXV Combatant concept: part warship and part next-gen carrier for unmanned craft.

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Gulak equipped the Uno with a gyroscope and a control system that both keeps the rider balanced over the tires and manages the suspension.

The Uno’s two wheelchair motors should, theoretically, give it a top speed of 40 mph, but for safety’s sake, Gulak hasn’t taken it above 15 mph yet. “The only way to figure out if an alteration works is to jump on and ride the thing,” he says. “I’m pretty sure I chipped my kneecap in one crash.”

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First MAARS Robot Shipped to U.S. Military

Via foster-miller.com

McLean, VA, June 4, 2008 — QinetiQ North America, a global developer of innovative technology solutions for national defense, today announced that the Foster-Miller subsidiary of its Technology Solutions Group has shipped the first MAARSTM ground robot to the U.S. military under a contract from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal/Low-Intensity Conflict (EOD/LIC) Program within the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO). MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) is the first fully modular ground robot system capable of providing a measured response including non-lethal, less-lethal and even lethal stand-off capabilities.

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Lockheed and Raytheon Vie for MKV

Via aviationweek.com

Via globalsecurity.org

Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are taking very different design approaches as they compete to address the Missile Defense Agency’s growing concerns about tracking and destroying multiple targets, even decoys, lofted by ballistic missiles aimed at the U.S.

Intelligence officials are concerned that decoy technologies developed by the former Soviet Union and Russia have spread to would-be adversaries or could be duplicated by countries building up arsenals of ballistic missiles. Decoys can be as unsophisticated as metal fragments or balloons that are released along with a warhead when a ballistic missile’s nose cone opens up in flight. Or they can be more complicated and emulate the infrared signature of a ballistic missile or warhead. They are all designed to fool the MDA’s ground- and space-based sensor network as well as the infrared seekers on U.S. kill vehicles that are ultimately responsible for the endgame of a missile defense engagement.

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Boeing, partners test Airborne Laser

Via mae.pennnet.com

Via lockheedmartin.com

ST. LOUIS, 29 May 2008. The Boeing Company, industry teammates, and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency completed the first laser activation testing for the Airborne Laser (ABL) missile defense program on the ground at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

video:

Airborne Laser

“ABL’s weapon system integration team has done a great job preparing the high-energy laser for activation testing, which will ensure each laser subsystem is brought on line sequentially and safely,” says Scott
Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. “Laser installation and the start of laser activation move the program a giant step closer to ABL’s missile shoot-down demonstration
planned for 2009.”

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ScanEagle/2

Via gizmag.com

The ScanEagle UAV has proven a revelation in Iraq and Afghanistan, offering another key informational input on the battlefield to help soldiers under fire make better decisions. The bad news for enemies of the United States is that the miniature UAV can now carry Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) which can pick out man made objects not readily visible to IR or EO cameras.

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