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Congress blocks purchase of more Microsoft combat goggles
The US Congress opted not to approve the purchase of more Microsoft combat goggles for the US Army. Instead, it’s allocating funds for Microsoft to develop an updated version.
The US Army will test a 300 kW laser weapon system in 2022
Even if it’s only a demonstration, the system represents a significant step up from the lasers the military has had access to in the past.
Microsoft wins 10-year contract supplying AR tech to the US Army
America's ground-pounders of tomorrow will soon be equipped with custom-built HoloLens headsets as part of a decade-long contract worth nearly $22 billion between the Department of Defense and Microsoft, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
The US Army wants to build an autonomous drone charging system
The military funded a four-year research project into the technology.
US Army and Navy unban Twitch commenter who criticized the military
The US Army and Navy have agreed to unban Jordan Uhl, the activist who linked to a Wikipedia page listing US military war crimes in their Twitch chats. After the incident, Uhl wrote an article criticizing the military for using Twitch to scout for potential recruits, especially since recruiters can interact with kids as young as 13. In a letter sent to Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, which represented Uhl, the Navy justified his ban by pointing out that he violated the channel’s spam policy when he kept posting similar messages over a period of three days.
US Army is the latest military branch to ban TikTok
The Navy isn't the only American military branch clamping down on TikTok. The Army has banned the use of TikTok on government-issued phones, with Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa telling Military.com that it's "considered a cyber threat." The Army started warning soldiers in mid-December, roughly at the same time the Defense Department was telling employees to delete TikTok to "circumvent any exposure of personal information."
US Air Force gets its first anti-drone laser weapon from Raytheon
Raytheon has delivered the first anti-drone buggy to the US Air Force, just over year after it introduced the technology. It's a high-energy laser system mounted on a small all-terrain vehicle, to be specific, which uses electro-optical/infrared sensors to detect and track drones. After it identifies and tracks the unwelcome flying device, it then neutralizes it with its laser in a process that takes a few seconds.
US Army to test robotic combat vehicles in 2020
The US military is about to try using robotic vehicles in a more aggressive fashion -- the Army will start testing robotic combat vehicles in 2020. Soldiers in two modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles (Mission Enabler Technologies-Demonstrators, or MET-Ds) will remote control four crewless M113-derived prototypes to gauge how well the system works in real life. While it's not a combat situation, the Army hopes for feedback that will reveal problems or different use patterns.
US Army shows how it will use HoloLens in the field
When Microsoft employees balked at the company's $479 million HoloLens contract with the US Army, it raised a question: just what would this system look like? You now have a better idea. The Army has given CNBC an early demo of its Integrated Visual Augmentation System, which uses a modified HoloLens 2 to provide both combat assistance and training. It reportedly feels like a "real-life game of Call of Duty" -- you can see your squad's positions on a map, a compass, and even your weapon's reticle. Thermal imaging would help you see in the dark without as much of a telltale glow as existing night vision headsets.
After Math: It's the circle of tech
While most of us now need Buzzfeed quizzes about "things only '90s kids would recognize" to remember what a Blockbuster is, the franchise's inevitable demise is still something to be commemorated -- if only by finally returning that VHS copy of Batman Forever you've been holding onto. But even as some companies fade into oblivion, others flourish in the market spaces left over. Here are a few from this week.
US Army email mistake puts hundreds of immigrant recruits at risk
Accidental exposure of sensitive data is a major problem by just about anyone's standards, but it could be genuinely dangerous when the military is involved. The Washington Post has learned that the US Army inadvertently emailed sensitive recruitment data on more than 4,200 immigrants to recruits, including names, enlistment dates, languages and Social Security numbers. Over 900 of those in the mix are Mandarin speakers while dozens speak Russian, raising the potential for China and Russia to persecute the recruits or their families as punishment for becoming American soldiers.
The Army may ditch fitness tests for unfit, 'ponytail-wearing' hackers
It's a truth, often forgotten, that no-one can be perfect at everything. We may laud Justin Timberlake's musical, dancing and acting ability, but he's probably a terrible plumber. It's a problem that the Army is beginning to understand, since the sort of people who can successfully fight in a cyber war are more likely to be bad at assault courses, climbing ropes and carrying heavy objects. It's with this in mind that Lt. Gen. Robert Brown, head of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, says that the US Army may relax its fitness requirements for digital soldiers.
Unreal Engine 3 licensed to contractor for US Army training sims
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 is now in the hands of Intelligent Decisions, a company that creates virtual training simulations for the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command. Intelligent Decisions wants to use UE3 to polish the movements of autonomous avatars in its Dismounted Soldier Training System, and add haptic feedback from incoming fire, full skeletal controls and environmental variation, VP of Simulation and Training Clarence Pape says. Intelligent Decisions secured the license from Applied Research Associates, Virtual Heroes and Epic via the Unreal Government Network, a program that handles government contracts for the Unreal engine. Insert your own "gears of war" joke here.
America's Army: Proving Grounds due this year, beta testers being enlisted
The next version of America's Army will arrive this year, the US Army announced on its Facebook page. The developer is taking beta tester applicants for the next Army game, which its official forums users were given a head start on two weeks ago.America's Army first launched in July 2002 as a free PC first-person shooter and Army recruitment tool. The most recent update to the series, America's Army 3, came out in June 2009.[Thanks, David!]
DARPA threat detection technology uses a camera to see targets, software and soldier brains to identify them
DARPA aids our military in myriad ways, from designing one shot, one kill weapons to creating robotic pack mules to carry soldiers' gear. It's also been building tools for soldiers to better survey their environment and identify threats, and its latest such tool is called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS). CT2WS is comprised of a 120-megapixel electro-optical video camera with a 120-degree field of view feeding a laptop running cognitive visual processing algorithms. Those algorithms identify potential targets in the video feed, which are shown to a soldier wearing an EEG cap that monitors brain signals. You see, the human brain is particularly good at perceiving threats, and CT2WS looks for the particular brain wave that occurs when we see one. The human component drastically improves the accuracy with which the system can identify enemies from afar. How accurate? Testing in desert, tropical and open terrain showed that without a solider/EEG filter, the system had 810 false alarms out of 2,304 threat events in an hour. Incorporating the filter resulted in only five false alarms per hour, plus it was able to identify 91 percent of the potential targets successfully. Not good enough, you say? Add commercial radar into the mix and the army becomes omniscient -- the system then identified 100 percent of the test targets.
US Army's LEMV spy blimp spotted hovering over New Jersey, may take up cargo duties (video)
The US Army's not-so-secret Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) spy blimp is better at staying hidden than we thought... if unintentionally. Although it was due to fly the friendly skies of Lakehurst, New Jersey in mid-June, Northrop Grumman's usually unmanned surveillance was only just caught floating over the Jersey Shore as part of a maiden flight on August 8th. The conspicuous, delayed test run proved that the LEMV could take off, steer and land smoothly, and started a series of exercises that should culminate in combat trials over Afghanistan at the start of 2013. Northrop's KC Brown Jr. tells Wired that there's a possible (if purely coincidental) consolation for missing another deadline -- the airship could be used in a pinch for carrying as much as seven tons of supplies without getting into harm's way, albeit at a fairly glacial 30MPH. The successful first flight won't be much consolation to Mav6, whose Blue Devil 2 was scuttled at the last minute after technical issues; it's nonetheless a relief for US troops, who may get weeks at a time of constant intelligence on enemy movements. Catch a short snippet of the early LEMV journey after the break.
Army seeking proposals for casualty-carrying UAVs
Combat is a grizzly business, and despite the best efforts of medical evacuation crews, it's not always feasible to send rescue teams into the fray. The US Army is seeking to address this with "autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)" (read: drones) for dropping off medical supplies and picking up injured troops. In its latest request for research and development proposals, the Army calls not for new tools, but for the repurposing of current aircraft to do the job. Preferred candidates in the already unmanned class include the A160 Hummingbird and the K-MAX, while one of the suggestions for remote-control modification is the infamous Black Hawk. Makes the AR.Drone seem a little wimpy, doesn't it?
US soldiers to wear blast sensors in Afghanistan, collect shock data
Starting next month, around one thousand frontline personnel in Afghanistan will begin testing the Soldier Body Unit, a sensor kit for recording the effects of explosions on the human body. While that's not the most pleasant of subjects, the blast sensors have been rushed out to collect as much data as possible before soldiers head home in 2014. The US Army's Rapid Equipping Force and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which developed the sensors, hope to gather info on concussions and traumatic brain injuries to improve aftercare. This will also be used at source to stop super-soldiers heading back out after a concussion and increasing the probability of an even worse injury. Further sensors will be carried on military vehicles, to help measure the effects of IED blasts on passengers. Adding two pounds in extra equipment probably won't make the Soldier Body Unit too popular, but it's thought the kit could weigh in at half a pound once it's been refined.
Android Army: US soldiers to leverage portable battlefield network and smartphones
Smartphones: the future of wartime communication? That is the goal of the US Army through the development of its portable wireless network, dubbed Warfighter Information Network-Tactical or WIN-T. The Army hopes to leverage WIN-T to bring near-instant digital communication to the battlefield by outfitting soldiers with Motorola Atrix handsets running a heavily modified version of Android. An exposé by Wired explains that the system's main goal is information and intelligence sharing; between both soldiers and central command. Friendly troop positions, suspicious vehicles or persons and surveillance video from unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) can all be mapped and shared with servicemen and women in the field. It's been a dream of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties, but has only recently become monetarily and technologically feasible due to advances in smartphone processing power. It's nerdy, it's fascinating... and this is the stuff the Army is willing to talk about. Hit the source link for the full write-up.
US Army breaking up with A160 Hummingbird drone-copter, says it's too high maintenance
It's not me, it's you. The US Army's dalliance with Boeing's A160 Hummingbird drone got one step closer to Splitsville after the military branch issued a stop-work order for the project. Initially scheduled to see action in Afghanistan starting this July, the chopper-drone turned plenty of heads thanks to a DARPA-developed Argus-IS imaging system with a 1.8-gigapixel camera capable of spying on ground targets from 20,000 feet. The honeymoon period between the Army and the A160 is apparently over, however, thanks to a host of issues. These included wiring problems as well as excessive vibration that caused an A160 to crash earlier this year due to a transmission mount failure. The problems not only increased risk and caused delays, but also led program costs to helicopter out of control -- a big no-no given Uncle Sam's recent belt-tightening. In the meantime, the Army is reportedly checking out the K-MAX, though it's important to note that this unmanned chopper specializes in cargo and doesn't have the A160's eyes.
