When most people hear the word "drone," they probably picture a cockpit-free plane zipping over the Iraqi desert. But there’s more to it than that. The Army is in the process of adopting a whole new generation of unmanned vehicles that will assist soldiers on the battlefield—and they’re by far the scariest remote-controlled cars you’ll ever see.
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The BBC has managed to get a rare, fascinating look at a day in the life of a US drone pilot. And while some of you might be quick to brush the task off as glorified gaming
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Maybe you thought that self-driving vehicles were a little bit further away, but check out this prototype machine gun, that will dispatch enemies from afar, without needing anyone to drive it.
The HDT Robotics Self-Driving Machine Gun uses a M240 machine gun and it can fire at a target at almost 500 feet away. Such a robot could help clear the way for soldiers to safely enter a battlefield, assuming it’s able to tackle the terrain us puny humans can. The prototype was demonstrated for the US Army, and you’ll notice that they have it chained up “for safety purposes.” Perhaps they learned a lesson from ED-209.
It can be a scary thought, having unmanned vehicle firing at enemies. So long as they remain firmly under human control, I guess it can’t be all bad.
[via Computerworld]
When Zac Vawter lost his leg in a motorcycle accident a few years ago, he thought he’d never walk like a normal person again. But today, the 32-year-old software engineer can climb stairs, wiggle his toes and stroll through parks. The only difference is that one of his legs is a mind-controlled robot.
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After being invaded by Germany in the west and later by Soviet Russia in the east, the Polish government fled Warsaw but continued to fight from abroad. After Germany attacked Russia, the Russians decided to release their Polish prisoners of war, who then began re-forming into an army.
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Different strokes, different folks. Different guns, different countries. Here’s a map showing the military issue rifle for each country in the world. You’ll see familiar M4s, AK-47s, AK-74s, some M16s and tinkles of other weaponry. Judging by the map’s choice of colors, it seems to group weapons that are of a similar family together by color.
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When it comes to advancements in the world of science, I guess we definitely have to hand it to nature for being the undisputed king of inspiration. One of the best camouflage exponents in the natural world would be the nimble squid, who is so notorious for blending into their surroundings (not to mention having an arsenal of defenses to boot), that they make a chameleon look like an amateur. A research team over at the University of California was successful in producing reflectin, which has been described as “a structural protein essential in the squid’s ability to change color and reflect light”. This allowed them to churn out tiny encasings on bacteria which mimicked the squid’s changeable skin.
The very same research team also performed experiments with other substances that reacted with the engineered “skin”, and they were pretty happy with the results although it goes without saying that a whole lot more work needed to be done in order to provide soldiers of the future with a real smart uniform or clothing that lets them blend in with their natural surroundings in the future. I do wonder, however, will such highly advanced clothing also result in the increase of friendly fire incidents? After all, you might not realize it is your team mate hiding behind that rock due to the uniform’s coloration.
Squids Could Inspire New Camouflage Clothing For Soldiers original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Earlier this week, Buzzfeed reported that a computer security flaw in has left Army computers vulnerable for at least two years; today, the Army confirmed to Buzzfeed that this was, in fact the case. And that they have no plans to do anything to fix it.
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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Chinese spy drone! Oh, and there’s another one! That’s what the Indian Army must’ve thought when they saw two specks of something "spying on them" in the sky. Instead, what India thought were Chinese spy drones turned out to be… Jupiter and Venus.
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After getting upset about the fact that Guardian has been breaking news and leaking classified documents about the many and varied spying programs of the NSA, the US Army has decided to block access to the news site among its employees.
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