New Sniper Rifles to be deployed in Afghanistan

The terrain in Afghanistan isn’t very friendly for U.S. troops. In the mountainous east near the Pakistan border, insurgents positioned at the peaks open fire on soldiers’ outposts in the valleys, with gravity adding to the distance Taliban bullets travel. So now Army snipers are getting new weapons to help even the odds.

Starting next year, the snipers will be outfitted with the XM2010 rifle, capable of hitting a target from a 3,937-foot distance — about three quarters of a mile. The current sniper rifle, the M-24, has a range of 2,625 feet, by contrast. “You want to give guys the capability to do those things they need to do at those ranges,” Colonel Douglas Tamilio, the Army’s weapons program manager, told USA Today.

full story here 

Uno Electric Scooter

BPG Motors was started when high school student Benjamin Gulak took a trip to China and saw the pollution from motorbikes and scooters. He started designing an electric scooter that would be cool and cleaner.

At CES, the company he founded will show off a prototype of the Uno III, which folds up to operate as a Segway-like unicycle. That allows it to fit into tight spaces, such as an elevator, or move through mixed-use city spaces with pedestrians.

When the front wheel pulls out, it becomes a regular scooter, viewed here from the back. But the styling is definitely meant to look more like a motorcycle. The scooter is projected to go about 35 miles per hour and have a range of about 30 miles.

The company plans to start making scooters much like this in about a year on a limited production run.

This is a screenshot from a video created by BPG Motors, which shows how the scooter can transition from its upright mode to its "motorcycle" mode while still riding.

[CNET] {Trendhunter]

The Antonov An-225 Mriya

The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft, designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. It is the world\’s heaviest fixed-wing aircraft. The design, built to transport the Buran orbiter, was an enlargement of the successful An-124 Ruslan.

Specifications:

• Wingspan: 88.4 m (290 ft 2 in)
• Length: 84 m. (275 ft 6 in)
• Height: 18.1 m (59 ft 3 in)
• Empty weight: 285,000 kg (628,317 lb)
• (Max. take-off weight: 600,000 kg (1,322,773 lb)
• Payload: 250,000 kg (550,000 lb)
• Range: 4,000 km (2,160 nm)
• Cruise speed: 850 km/h (460 kts)
• Engines: 4 ZMKB Progress D-18 turbofans, 229 kN (51,600 lb). 
• Crew: 6

The An-225 first flew on 21 December 1988. The aircraft was on static display at the Paris Air Show in 1989 and it flew during the public days at the Farnborough air show in 1990. Two aircraft were ordered, but only one An-225 (tail number UR-82060) was finished. It can carry ultra-heavy and oversize freight, up to 250,000 kg (550,000 lb) internally,or 200,000 kg (440,000 lb) on the upper fuselage. Cargo on the upper fuselage can be 70 metres (230 ft) long.

A second An-225 was partially built during the late 1980s for the Soviet space program. The second An-225 included a rear cargo door and a redesigned tail with a single vertical stabilizer. It was planned to be more effective for cargo transportation.Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the cancellation of the Buran space program, the lone operational An-225 was placed in storage in 1994.The six Ivchenko Progress engines were removed for use on An-124s, and the second uncompleted An-225 airframe was also stored. The first An-225 was later re-engined and put into service.

By 2000, the need for additional An-225 capacity had become apparent, so the decision was made in September 2006 to complete the second An-225. The second airframe was scheduled for completion around 2008,then delayed. By August 2009, the aircraft had not been completed and work had been abandoned.

[Woondu] [Wiki]

Video: China's J-20 Stealth Jet Takes Off

Aside from being China's first stealth fighter jet, the mysterious J-20 is designed to "carry heavy weapons loads and lots of fuel for long-range missions." Despite banning photography at the test airfield, officials still allowed cell phones to be used near the premises.

[Popular Science]

F-15 Eagles upgraded to go head to head with Chinese Stealth Fighters

To be fair, the F-15 and F-22 (and, later, the F-35) will probably usually work in teams. But the F-15, with its better sensors, could prove to be the backbone for U.S. and allied forces in any Pacific dogfight.The magic is all in the Eagle’s nose. Compared to the angular, stealthy F-22, the totally non-stealth F-15 has a more capacious nosecone that can carry a larger radar. The larger the radar, the more likely it is to detect the J-20, despite that plane’s potentially very small frontal radar cross-section. The F-15 also routinely carries more fuel and missiles than the F-22.

The Pentagon has begun fitting new, electronically scanned Raytheon APG-63(V)3 radars to around 175 F-15Cs dating from the 1980s. In a few years, the 220 ’90s-vintage F-15Es — normally optimized for ground attack, but also capable of air combat — will get new APG-82(V)4 radars, also from Raytheon.

To pay for this electronic transformation,  the Pentagon has set aside some of the roughly $34 billion it will save by shutting down several redundant Air Force headquarters and command centers and delaying production of the troubled F-35 stealth fighter-bomber.

The F-15 initiative was important enough to warrant mention in Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ announcement of Pentagon cost-cutting measures last week. Gates said the modernized F-15s would be “viable well into the future.” That might come as a surprise to some observers, considering that just three years ago, an F-15C disintegrated in mid-air, nearly killing the pilot. After that accident, some observers declared the F-15 unfit for duty, for reasons of age.

But the Air Force determined that a poorly made part, rather than age, caused the F-15 disintegration — and that with repairs and good maintenance, F-15Cs could keep flying until at least 2025, and E-models until 2035. “But those are just planning factors,” said Col. Gerald Swift, the Air Force’s top F-15 maintainer. “Right now, there is nothing life-limiting on the F-15. It is a very well-designed platform.”

The sprawling U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan, will be the main home of the modernized F-15s. The first batch of F-15Cs with the new (V)3 radars arrived in December. By 2013, there will be 54 improved F-15Cs at the Pacific outpost, flying alongside a rotating force of 12-18 F-22s.

The Air Force is working on new tactics to blend the F-15s and F-22s into a single team. As currently envisioned, the F-15s would fly with extra fuel tanks and AMRAAM missiles and with radars blaring, while the F-22s, carrying less gas and fewer missiles, would turn off their radar and sneak up on the enemy for ninja-style jabs. “Our objective is to fly in front with the F-22s, and have the persistence to stay there while the [F-22s] are conducting their [low-observable] attack,” Maj. Todd Giggy, an F-15 pilot, told Aviation Week.

This teaming will get a big boost starting in 2014, when the Air Force finally installs secure data links on the F-22, allowing it to covertly swap targeting info with other planes. Even then, the F-15 will have a better radar and more weapons and endurance, making it the Pentagon’s preferred J-20-killer — and the biggest reason why the United States hasn’t yet lost control of the airspace over the Pacific.

[Wired]

US Air Force resurrects 'Blackswift' hypersonic bomber program

In 2007, DARPA committed to funding the development of a prototype unmanned aircraft called "Blackswift" that would be able to take off from a runway unassisted and be anywhere in the world within a few hours. The program was canceled just a year later, but now, it's back.

Technically, this new development project being worked on by the U.S. Air Force won't be Blackswift: it'll be "the son of Blackswift," whatever that means. The original idea behind the Falcon hypersonic vehicle program (of which Blackswift was a part) was to create an aircraft that could fly fast enough to make it anywhere it needed to be in an hour or two, a valuable capability for either a reconnaissance aircraft or a bomber.

The trickiest part about Blackswift and the Falcon program has always has been the engines. What Blackswift is supposed to be able to do is utilize one single "combined-cycle" engine that can make it all the way from takeoff to Mach 6 and above (and back) without relying on a carrier aircraft or booster rockets or anything like that. This means combining turbojets (like the Concorde used) with ramjets (like the SR-71 used) with scramjets (like the X-51 used), all in one package. It's not going to be easy, but it's certainly possible, and we might see it within a decade.

Below, check out a concept video of the original Falcon/Blackswift aircraft.

[Danger Room]

Last Call for Army’s ‘Flying Beer Keg’ Drone

There it was, 7,000 feet up in the sky, snapping photographs of the Iraqi landscape when it looked like it should have been slaking the illicit thirst of underage soldiers. But now the Army reports that the program that gave us a drone known colloquially as the Flying Beer Keg is all tapped out.

Pentagon acquisitions chief Ashton Carter is set to axe the drone, a vestige of the Army gazillion-dollar modernization program, Future Combat Systems, that was killed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2009. Boeing and subcontractor Honeywell received a stop-work order last week from the Pentagon letting them know to stop testing. And that puts the Flying Beer Keg on the chopping block.

Officially, the Honeywell-developed drone is called the gasoline-powered Micro Air Vehicle (its company name is the T-Hawk), and it’s one of the lightweight drones that the Army fielded last decade. Weighing only 17 pounds, the g-MAV has creepy, tendril-like kickstands to keep it upright, making it look like something the Galactic Empire used to hunt the Rebel Alliance. It shoots up into the sky vertically thanks to a ducted fan to take reconnaissance photos.

A National Guard unit took the Flying Beer Keg to Iraq in 2008. The Navy used earlier versions to hunt for homemade bombs.But it didn’t fly as smoothly as the Pentagon would have liked. The Beer Keg is “known for its loud noise when flying,” reports Kate Brannen of Defense News, who broke the news of the program’s end.Of course, it’s not like the Army is hurting for drones. Gates’ budget reshuffling clears the decks for the Army to buy more Cessna-sized Gray Eagle unmanned spy planes. That’s on top of its tiny drones like the 3-foot-long RQ-11 Raven or the 11-foot-long Shadow.

But civilian life has a lot to offer the Flying Beer Keg. TPM recently reported that the Miami-Dade police department bought two of the drones from Honeywell, making it perhaps the first local law enforcement organization in the United States to use spy drones in an urban area. (Hat tip to Aviation Week’s Paul McLeary.) So if you see it up in the air over South Beach, don’t try to drink out of it.

Photo: Honeywell

[Wired]

Gates: North Korea could have long-range missile within 5 years

Soucrce: CNN News

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday that North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the United States, asserting that the rogue Communist regime is within five years of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"I think that North Korea will have developed an intercontinental ballistic missile within that time frame," Gates told reporters during a visit to China. But he said he has doubts that the North Koreans will be able to field many ICBMs. "I believe they will have a very limited capability," he said.

A spokesman for the Defense Intelligence Agency later supported Gates' remarks, saying, "North Korea's two recent attempts at 'space launches' indicate a continued trend toward development of ICBM capabilities. This trend of development, in addition to North Korea's stated goal of developing a nuclear warhead, supports the Secretary of Defense's recent statement regarding potential threats from North Korea."

If North Korea acts with urgency, it could have ICBMs in five years, said John Pike, founder of GlobalSecurity.org, a military analysis group.

Part of development is just a matter of trial and error.

"If you test enough times, you will eventually test out whatever fabrication and design flaws there are and you will have a workable missile," Pike told CNN.

North Korea's most recent test of it's longest-range ballistic missile, in April 2009, was a failure in that it did not put a satellite into space. But experts point out that it flew over Japan before crashing, farther than any other North Korean missile. The 2,000-mile flight proved North Korea is getting better at building long-range missiles.

The North Koreans are "pretty aggressive with its ballistic missile program," said one U.S. official. "It poses a "serious threat."

The Gates assessment reflects not new thinking but rather an intelligence estimate put out a decade ago, according to US officials. The 2001 National Intelligence Estimate reads "most Intelligence Community agencies project that before 2015 the United States most likely will face ICBM threats from North Korea."

The five-year estimate is "certainly within the realm of possibility," the U.S. official said Tuesday.

In China, Gates told reporters that North Korea's path, combined with the limited patience of the South Korean public over the North's provocations, has changed the status quo on the peninsula.

Gates cited last March's sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, in which 46 sailors died. Seoul and much of the international community blamed the North for the sinking, but Pyongyang denied involvement in the attack.

In November, the South's navy fired into disputed waters near Yeonpyeong Island and, in retaliation, the North shelled the island, killing four South Koreans.

"Clearly if there is another provocation, there will be pressure on the South Korean government to react," Gates said. "We consider this a situation of real concern and we think there is some urgency to proceeding down the track of negotiations and engagement."

But Gates said that U.S. patience with the North is measured and called for "concrete actions" by Pyongyang.

"We don't want to see the situation that we've seen so many times before, which is the North Koreans engage in a provocation and then everybody scrambles diplomatically to try and put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Gates said.

Gates applauded China -- North Korea's biggest trading partner -- for its moderating influence on tensions in the Korean peninsula. "They clearly have played a helpful role," he said.

What Gates did not discuss in his comments is if North Korea would be able to put a nuclear warhead on top of an ICBM capable of reaching the United States. The lighter the nuclear warhead, the farther the missile can fly and the greater its accuracy.

Bruce Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a fomer CIA analyst specilizing in North Korea, said the North Koreans have talked about making progress in building a nuclear ICBM warhead, but very few details have leaked out of the secretive country.

So what can the United States do to diminish the threat from North Korea? Gates said diplomacy hasn't worked, he wants action from Pyongyang.

"Rhetoric is not enough at this point. I think there need to be to concrete actions by the North to demonstrate that they're truly serious about negotiation and engagement at this point," Gates said. "They could have a moratorium on missile testing, a moratorium on nuclear testing. There are several areas where they could take concrete actions."

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has nearly two dozen interceptor missiles deployed in Alaska and California to shoot down any missile coming towards the western United States. But even though those missiles are deployed, it's unclear is they would work if needed.

The two most recent tests of the interceptor missiles, one a year ago and one just one month ago, both failed to knock down the incoming target missile. Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that he was "not worried" about the test failures.

But Riki Ellison, founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a non-profit group that urges missile defense development, said last month, "If you're the American public, you've paid a lot for this system, you want to make sure that you are going to be protected. This doesn't give the confidence that you need."

The budget for America's missile defense system is about $10 billion.

Gates made his remarks Tuesday after meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao and spoke on the same day that China made the first test flight of its J-20 stealth fighter.

Asked if he thought the flight may have been timed to coincide with his visit, Gates said Hu had told him "that the test had absolutely nothing to do with my visit and had been a pre-planned test."

Asked if he believed that, Gates said, "Coming from President Hu, yes."