Get all of your geocache games in while you can, kids... if the Worst Case Scenario® goes down, the nation's GPS system could begin to fail sometime next year. According to a Government Accountability Office report, the Global Positioning System has been so mismanaged that when aging equipment starts to fail, there may be no new satellites to take their place. "If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites," the report states, "there will be an increased likelihood that... the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to." All we can say is that between this, Internet Doomsday, and the imminent Robot Apocalypse, it's gonna be a fun couple of years.

[Via Fox News]

Boeing's been busy with the high-tech death lately -- just a week after the company announced the Phantom Ray fighter UAV, it's back in the news with a high-powered airborne microwave weapon designed to knock out enemy electronics. The goal is to more or less destroy the enemy's tech with out having to set off one of those pesky nuclear explosions necessary for an EMP, and Boeing plans to test the tech out both in the air and on the ground several times over the next three years as part of the Air Force's Counter-electronics High power microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) project. We'll be ready with the popcorn.

[Via The Register]

Windows 7 might be getting all the attention lately, but Windows XP is having a quiet little renaissance of its own -- not only have sales of the venerable OS been extended until 2010, Microsoft is selling an ultra-secure version to the Air Force. The custom build ships with over 600 settings bolted down, and a security patch turnaround of just 72 hours compared to the standard edition's 57 days -- all because Steve Ballmer personally stepped in and approved the project at the Air Force's request. The effort's to standardize and preconfigure the OS has paid off: 85 percent of previous known exploits have been blocked, support call volume has dropped 40 percent, and the USAF has saved some $100 million in costs. Nice -- but don't get your hopes up, since it doesn't seem like Microsoft has any intention of selling this version to the public.

[Via Slashdot]

We're beginning to think the US government is playing tricks with our head. Let's see, in late 2004, a Boeing anti-missile airborne laser achieved first light; in October of 2006, a laser-equipped 747-400F was deemed ready for testing; in January of 2007, an MD-10 with Northrop Grumman's Guardian anti-missile system took off; now, we're back to the testing stage? Something doesn't add up. Whatever the case, we're being fed information that leads us to think that the US Air Force's Airborne Laser has moved on to some "other" stage of testing. More specifically, engineers are making sure its "sequencing and control" functions are operating normally. Unsurprisingly, we're left in the dark as to when this thing will see action (again?), but consider our interest piqued for a reason The Man didn't intend.

Air Force buffs, prepare to salute a true American hero as it makes it way into the annals of military history: the F-117 stealth fighter. The planes -- one of the most enigmatic members of the military's arsenal -- will be making their final trip on April 21st from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to Tonopah Test Range Airfield in Nevada, the home of their first flight. The aircraft is being replaced by a newer model, the F-22 Raptor, and the government says it has no plans to bring the radar-dodging planes out of retirement. In all, there have only been 59 F-117s that have rolled off the assembly line, 37 of which have already been taken out of the skies, and another seven which have crashed. We'll miss you, F-117, and all the totally awesome, completely secret stuff you did.

See, the problem with bioengineering isn't moral or ethical dilemmas, or even homicidal robo-droids enslaving humanity. It's that if you let researchers go wild, eventually they'll find a way to make LEDs out of salmon sperm, threatening the sanctity (and sperm-free-ness) of your entire gadget-based lifestyle. Yet that's exactly what Professor Andrew Steckl of the University of Cincinnati has managed to do, using the DNA found in salmon sperm to enhance the brightness of LEDs. The so-called BioLEDs are being developed in cooperation with the Air Force (yes, the Air Force -- they had a "good source" of salmon sperm, apparently) and they've been so successful that Steckl has been getting salmon sperm from researchers worldwide "wanting to see if their sperm is good enough." Steckl says that since salmon sperm is considered a waste product of the fishing industry, BioLEDs are particularly green -- kind of like our faces right now.

We've already seen the PlayStation 3 put to use for some non-gaming tasks (other than playing Blu-ray movies), and it now looks like the U.S. Air Force is aiming to get in on the act as well, with it recently putting out a so-called Request for Proposal that is seeking 300 PS3s for a "technology assessment." Needless to say, their primary interest is in the console's powerful Cell processor, which they say is the "only brand on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics needed for this program at an acceptable cost." Exactly what that program entails is unsurprisingly being kept under wraps, with the RFP only going so far to state that the Air Force Research Laboratory is "conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors." Whatever it is, the Air Force certainly seems to be trying to keep costs as low as possible, with them apparently only interested in the 40GB model.

[Via Switched]

Sure, we've seen monolithic solar farms before, but the 14-megawatt Nellis solar energy system is a beast that stands alone -- for now, at least. As of today, this farm is hailed as America's "largest solar photovoltaic system," but if all goes to plan, Cleantech America will grab those honors when it completes a massive 80-megawatt project in neighboring California. Nevertheless, this system -- which is housed at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada -- will reportedly generate "30 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually and supply approximately 25-percent of the total power used at the base, where 12,000 people live and work." Of course, some 140 acres of land have been covered with 72,000 solar panels in order to make it happen, but it's not like anything else is going out there (CES and rabid gambling notwithstanding).

[Via MetaEfficient, image courtesy of CleanTech]

We've seen some interesting solutions to keeping UAVs powered for extended missions, but none so diabolical as actually landing on the enemy's power lines and using their juice to power up. That's the plan behind the Power Line Urban Sentry (PLUS) project currently being run by the Air Force Research Laboratory and private firm Defense Research Associates, and it's already yielded UAVs that can land on power lines and charge in three hours. The project started with attempts to charge by simply flying near power lines, but when that method yielded only micro-watts of juice, focus shifted to actually landing on the lines. The team is planning all sorts of other capabilities for the tech, including navigation systems -- "Power lines are like highways in the sky," says one of the researchers -- and auxiliary surveillance systems that power up when jacked in. On top of all that awesomeness, the team is also working with an outfit called the Center for Morphing Control to disguise the UAVs when they sit on the lines -- so far, they say, they've made a small UAV "look like a Coke can." Test flights are scheduled for 2008, and there's still work to be done on the power line latching mechanism, but whatever -- we want one.

[Thanks, Stuart T., original photo by Bob Fornal]

Raytheon sure loves its lasers, and it's proving so with the crowd-repelling Silent Guardian. The device, which is part of the Directed Energy Solutions program, is reportedly designed to be mounted onto a military vehicle where it can "throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile," penetrating enemy skin just 1/64th of an inch and not causing "visible, permanent injury." Essentially, the invisible beam has the ability to inflict "limitless, unbearable pain," which seems to stop just as soon as you're able to get out of the ray's path. According to its maker, the machine could be used in "various commercial and military applications including law enforcement, checkpoint security, facility protection, force protection and peacekeeping missions," and it's ready to calm the masses as we speak.

[Via InformationWeek]
Read - Silent Guardian product page
Read - Silent Guardian hands-on

A long line of tenacious competitors is forming to bid on the US Air Force's multibillion-dollar upgrade plan for the current Global Positioning System, with major players Lockheed Martin and Boeing squaring off for the next generation of GPS satellites. The lucky winning bidder will be responsible for construction of eight new GPS III satellites, which will be deployed for use in 2013. Additionally, the Air Force has opened the door for bidders on its ground-based GPS system (GPS OCX, which will utilize existing satellites) and is expected to choose two of three interested parties for the $160 million development contracts. Apparently, the industry is sweet on the Air Force for splitting the space and ground contracts, and instating a relatively new practice which allows companies to bid directly with the government (as opposed to subcontractors). Way to "aim high," everyone.

Shortly after the Navy announced its intentions to utilize unmanned combat aircrafts, the US Air Force is making sure it doesn't get left behind by taking delivery of "its initial BATMAV micro unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)." Among the diminutive crafts is a legion of Wasp IIIs, which have a wingspan of 29-inches, weigh in at just one-pound apiece, and carry integrated forward and side looking electro-optical color / infrared cameras. The backpackable devices are meant to be hand-launched and aim to provide "real-time video imagery to a handheld controller used by tactical units" in reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition missions. Now, if only these things had an ultra-lightweight chaingun strapped under each wing and were available at the local BX, we'd be sold.

[Via The Raw Feed]