Archive for the 'Military' Category

When Your Nuclear Warhead Expert Says “Oops”

Saturday, October 20th, 2007

MilitaryBack in late August a US Air Force B-52, flying from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, was found to have been armed with nuclear cruise missiles—unbeknownst to the flight crew (or anyone else in the military for that matter). After an investigation, the final reports are in and heads are rolling. Proper procedures, which have multiple checks to ensure this type of thing does not happen, were ignored. Many military careers have just effectively ended, with 4 colonels being relieved of their commands and 65 airmen losing their certification to work with nuclear weapons.

Link #1: http://ap.google.com/…

Link #2: http://www.latimes.com/…

How The Pentagon Got Its Shape

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

MilitaryThe linked article is a somewhat lengthy history of the politics behind the building of the Pentagon, including how it got its shape.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
(via Slashdot)

International Date Line Messes Up F-22s

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

AirplaneTurns out that crossing the international date line will crash the on-board computers for the new F-22 stealth fighter plane. Oops…

Link: http://it.slashdot.org/…

US Navy Developing Railguns

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

ShipPreviously the fodder of first-person-shooter video games, railguns are becoming a reality. The US Navy is actively developing railguns with an expected range of 200-250 miles, more than ten times that of current 5-inch guns. They expect to use the railgun in place of the (much more expensive) Tomahawk missile. This is not just a vague concept—they’ve already developed and tested a prototype at 1/8th power. We can expect to see them deployed in about 13 years.

Link: http://fredericksburg.com/…
(via Engadget)

Flares Create Smoke Angel

Saturday, January 20th, 2007

AirplaneAnti-missile flares on military planes create really cool smoke “angels”. Also, here’s a video of the flares being set off.

Link: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/…
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

Silly String And The US Marine Corps

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

MilitaryUS Marines have found that Silly String is useful for detecting the near-invisible trip wires used to set off explosive traps in Iraq. Now that’s improvisation!

Link: http://www.time.com/…
(via digg)

Air Force Expands To Cyberspace

Monday, November 6th, 2006

InternetIn 2005, the US Air Force added cyberspace to its list of operational areas (i.e., air, space). Now it is planning to create a cyberspace command.

http://today.reuters.com/…
(via engadget)

Cheyenne Mountain To Be “Idled”

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

Military

The Cheyenne Mountain complex, an icon of the Cold War, is to be abandoned with its operations moved to nearby Peterson AFB. The facility will, however, be kept in a state of readiness, just in case it turns out to be needed after all.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
(via slashdot)

The Start Of World War III?

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Nuclear Explosion

Newt Gingrich has made the news recently by stating the we are currently in the early stages of World War III. The linked article discusses this idea in depth.

http://www.macleans.ca/…
(via digg)

Flying An F-15 With One Wing

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

Airplane

This Israeli F-15 pilot was in a mid-air collision that tore off his plane’s right wing. Yet he managed to recover from the crash and safely land.

http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)

US Soldiers Prefer AK-47s

Wednesday, April 19th, 2006

AK-47

I guess there’s something to be said for lack of sophistication.

http://today.reuters.com/…

It’s a Bus! No, It’s a Tank! No, It’s Both!

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

Pretty impressive. There are additional combat stories on the manufacturer’s web site.

http://www.damninteresting.com/…