Manning the turret atop an armored vehicle is among the most essential and dangerous assignments in a military convoy. Gunners must stand exposed through a hole in the vehicle’s roof while laying cover and engaging targets. To reduce gunner casualties, the US military designed a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, a joystick-driven killing machine called the CROWS. More »
This is what happens when a US Navy guided-missile destroyer collides with a Japanese oil tanker. Or gets attacked by Godzilla. It can happen either way. The steel hull just turns into crumpled paper. The Navy hasn’t released any explanation of the accident yet. More »
Faced with rising fuel prices and diminishing oil reserves, the Navy is rebuilding itself with a greener fleet. The USS Makin Island is the poster child of this restructuring, having cut its fuel consumption in half with an engine overhaul. More »
This picture is badass. Here you see Navy SEALs demonstrating an exercise called Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) at Virginia Beach. SPIE is what happens when a patrol needs to be extracted from an area where a helicopter can’t land. Neat. And routine. But oh wait, is that, pray tell, a WAR DOG? Why yes, yes it is one of those tongue wagging, barking balls of fur that will lick your face right after they aid you in a top-secret terrorist takedown. What can’t WAR DOGS do? [US Navy Flickr] More »
Being the biggest ships in the US Navy fleet, it’s strange to think of an aircraft carrier getting replenished at sea by a much smaller mothership. But this happens often, as this image of the USS Enterprise sucking its food shows. More »
Tasked with mine detection and eradication in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy has sent a fleet of unmanned submarines to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open in Iran. Dubbed the SeaFox, each vehicle houses an underwater TV camera, sonar and a dose of explosives. Tipping the scales at less than 100 pounds, the subs are about four feet in length and are controlled via fiber optic cable that sends the live feed back to the captain of each ship. SeaFoxes can dive to depths of 300 meters and boasts a top speed of six knots. The units are thrust into action from helicopters, small rubber boats and off the rear of minesweepers and are capable of disposing of the aforementioned weapons of both the floating and drifting sort. There is one small catch: the $100,000 submarine destroys itself in the process, making each successful trek a suicide mission of sorts.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Robots
US Navy deploys SeaFox submarines to Persian Gulf for universal mine control originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
The Register, Business Insider | 
LA Times | Email this | Comments
With tensions between Iran and the West rapidly rising over the nation’s secretive nuclear technology developments, both sides are rattling their sabers. More »
We spend hundreds of hours on board a variety of airplanes each year, most often en-route to a trade show or product launch event, but occasionally we have a rare opportunity to hop on board military aircraft, to test out unrelated products, or, even more unusually, to take a seat behind the yoke. Sadly that’s not what we’re doing today — well, not exactly. We are taking a closer look at the F-35 fighter jet at Lockheed Martin’s Fighter Demonstration Center just outside our nation’s capital, but, being in the middle of a corporate complex, there’s no actual Lightning II on hand. We were able to take a simulated ride, however — this isn’t your ordinary 4D sickness-inducing amusement park thrill. The F-35 is by far the most advanced Lockheed jet to date, with updated radar, all-internal weapons, improved tracking systems, 360-degree infrared coverage with a visor readout, and a full-stealth design, not to mention the incredibly capable glass cockpit powered by more than 9.3 million lines of software code, and an overall smoother experience for pilots that could end up spending shifts of 12 hours or longer in flight.
The F-35 has already seen plenty of field time in the US, with more than 500 flights already in 2012, and it’s set to make its way to the UK armed forces next week and the Netherlands later this year, but while the aircraft is quite familiar to the pilots tasked with flying it, the public hasn’t had an opportunity to experience Lockheed’s latest airborne warrior. We flew a simulated mission within a grounded duplicate of the flyable F-35 cockpit, and the capabilities and improvements are quite clear — you definitely don’t want to encounter an F-35 from a previous-generation aircraft. The dual 8 x 10-inch touch-enabled displays combine to give you 8 x 20 inches of real estate, with dedicated modules for the weapons systems, targeting, and navigation easily accessible — you can also move them to different panels depending on your current objective. A pair of joysticks at the left and right side provide direct access, letting you move a cursor to track enemy crafts or ground-based targets as well, and a very slick heads-up-display mounted in the helmet provides infrared mapping and instrument readouts. Overall, it seems to be an incredibly powerful system. Unfortunately, the mock-up on display here isn’t accessible to the public, but you can join us for a behind-the-scenes look just after the break.
Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets, Transportation
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Between 1925 and 1927, the burgeoning US Naval submarine force suffered two high-profile submarine failures—the loss of the S-51 in 1925 as well as the S-4 in 1927—together resulting in the deaths of 71 US Servicemen. Seeing an opportunity to save lives, Charles B. “Swede” Momsen set about devising a means to pluck submariners from the briny deep. His solution remains the only submarine rescue system to ever actually work in practice. More »
In the early 1960’s, the US Department of Naval Research needed a new way to study the acoustic targeting for submarine rockets. The ship had to be silent and stable—more buoy than boat. The design that met the requirements became the world’s only vertically-flippable research vessel. Either that, or the lamest Transformer since Bumblebee. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
