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The future of US Army helicopters: pilots optional
Five years ago, the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter got a digital cockpit and fly-by-wire controls. Starting in 2011, the US Army would like it to perform missions without a pilot at the helm. In a 140-page "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap" released earlier this month, the Armed Forces reveal that the UH-60, AH-64, CH-47 and OH-58D whirlybirds will all be part of a new aircraft category called Optionally Piloted Vehicles (OPV) -- meaning in future, the flick of a switch will turn them into giant UAVs. If an unmanned Apache gunship makes your boots quake, you're not alone, but you won't truly have reason to fear until 2025. That's when the government estimates half of all Army aircraft will be OPV, and those bots will learn the more deadly behaviors, like swarming. Sikorsky says the unmanned UH-60M will fly later this year; read the full roadmap PDF at our more coverage link.
US Army developing body armor to protect against 'X-threats'
This one's unsurprisingly been in the works for a little while now, but it looks like the US Army is getting a bit closer to actually deploying a new type of body armor that it hopes will protect soldiers against both known threats and so-called "X-threats." While no one's saying exactly what those threats might be, the key to guarding against them, it seems, is an "advanced generation" of X-Sapi armor plating, which is apparently built from the same materials as current E-Sapi plates but built differently for "additional capabilities." That armor has been the subject of some criticism, however, since it actually adds some additional weight to the soldier's already heavy load, but Lt. Col. Jon Rickey of the Army's Soldier Protective Equipment program says there's still plenty of room for improvement in that respect. It's also, of course, still looking at plenty of other alternatives, including BAE's Ultra Lightweight Warrior program, which promises to cut the weight of helmets, vests and other equipment by twenty to thirty percent.
New Kevlar-based parachute rockets to repel RPG attacks
One very serious problem facing American and other armed forces in the field is the threat of being attacked by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). These big guns are difficult to defend against, unless you've got some very fast moving and precise weaponry. So how's a soldier supposed to defend against a volley of one or more RPGs? Well, Control Products' freshly patented idea is to use a serious of smaller low-altitude rockets equipped with Kevlar parachutes form a slow moving curtain, which would reduce add drag to and the speed of the speeding RPG. While this sounds like a good and inexpensive countermeasure, we're not yet convinced by the cocktail napkin patent filing sketches, but hey, that hasn't stopped harebrained government check-writers from funding all other manner of whacked out technologies.[Via NewScientistTech]
Land Warrior gear to equip a US Army battalion
After 15 years in the making, our footsoldiers are finally getting the proper location-based gear that they need. Noah Shachtman, one of the finest experts on military technology out there, has just informed us via his blog, DefenseTech, that one Army battalion will be equipped with a bunch of wearable electronics, known collectively as the Land Warrior. The team leaders of the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry division (better known as the "Manchus", who are slated to be deployed to Iraq next year) will get the nearly 20-pound getup that includes weapon-mounted sensors, voice communications, GPS, a full-color visual interface via the monocle, and a long-range gun sight on the monocle as well. While only the team leaders will get the whole kit and caboodle for now, every soldier will get a GPS beacon, alerting the higher-ups to their sub rosa whereabouts.
Phantom Sentinel, the new invisible, boomerang-like UAV
This whole "war on terror" thing sometimes reminds us a bit of that comic "Spy vs. Spy" -- each time we turn around, another company comes out with a way to ratchet espionage tech up a notch. We thought that the Lethal Frisbee UAV was cool, but we just found something that might in fact be a bit sweeter. Meet the "Phantom Sentinel," the latest from VeraTech Aero in Minnesota, which is a boomerang-like device for spying on our crafty foes on the other side. Apparently, as the UAV rotates it becomes nearly invisible in the sky while its cam takes quick snapshots of the scene below, then transmits them back to a soldier on the ground. We're assuming that those crazy goggles the other G.I. is wearing in this photo are able to translate that dizzying number of spinning images to something that a human brain can make sense of.[Via DefenseTech]
