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Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator hands-on (video)
We spend hundreds of hours on board a variety of airplanes each year, most often en-route to a trade show or product launch event, but occasionally we have a rare opportunity to hop on board military aircraft, to test out unrelated products, or, even more unusually, to take a seat behind the yoke. Sadly that's not what we're doing today -- well, not exactly. We are taking a closer look at the F-35 fighter jet at Lockheed Martin's Fighter Demonstration Center just outside our nation's capital, but, being in the middle of a corporate complex, there's no actual Lightning II on hand. We were able to take a simulated ride, however -- this isn't your ordinary 4D sickness-inducing amusement park thrill. The F-35 is by far the most advanced Lockheed jet to date, with updated radar, all-internal weapons, improved tracking systems, 360-degree infrared coverage with a visor readout, and a full-stealth design, not to mention the incredibly capable glass cockpit powered by more than 9.3 million lines of software code, and an overall smoother experience for pilots that could end up spending shifts of 12 hours or longer in flight. The F-35 has already seen plenty of field time in the US, with more than 500 flights already in 2012, and it's set to make its way to the UK armed forces next week and the Netherlands later this year, but while the aircraft is quite familiar to the pilots tasked with flying it, the public hasn't had an opportunity to experience Lockheed's latest airborne warrior. We flew a simulated mission within a grounded duplicate of the flyable F-35 cockpit, and the capabilities and improvements are quite clear -- you definitely don't want to encounter an F-35 from a previous-generation aircraft. The dual 8 x 10-inch touch-enabled displays combine to give you 8 x 20 inches of real estate, with dedicated modules for the weapons systems, targeting, and navigation easily accessible -- you can also move them to different panels depending on your current objective. A pair of joysticks at the left and right side provide direct access, letting you move a cursor to track enemy crafts or ground-based targets as well, and a very slick heads-up-display mounted in the helmet provides infrared mapping and instrument readouts. Overall, it seems to be an incredibly powerful system. Unfortunately, the mock-up on display here isn't accessible to the public, but you can join us for a behind-the-scenes look just after the break.%Gallery-160208%
Harris new rugged tablet brings Honeycomb to your local combat-zone
Harris makes the tough tech you'd expect to see census takers (leave it), NFL stadiums and public buses toting around. It's introducing a new 7-inch Android tablet that's so hard-as-nails it would make a Galaxy Tab go home and call its mother. The Harris RF-3590 packs a 1024 x 600 multitouch display, a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, 2GB of LPDDR2 RAM, 2 and 8-megapixel front and rear-facing cameras and comes running Honeycomb. There's plenty of connection options with the usual WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth supplanted by a cellular connection, Ethernet, HDMI, SD and USB holes. It'll come with a 64GB SSD as standard but you can upgrade it to 128GB if you've got the moolah. Designed for soldiers in the battlefield, when stealth isn't necessary you can even activate voice control and bark your orders into the pair of microphones included. There's no word on pricing or availability, presumably because if you want to pick one of these up, you probably need to be called "General," and not just because you're good at Starcraft.[Thanks, Mike]
BAE's infrared invisibility cloak makes tanks cold as ice, warm as cows
Warfare's constantly evolving. Daylight battles became late-night duels, and pre-noon skirmishes shifted to sundown slaughters -- some might say we're just getting lazy, but either way, thermal imaging now plays quite the vital role. Now BAE and the FMV -- Sweden's equivalent to DARPA -- have a way to mask the heat signature of heavy machinery. Adaptiv is a wall of 14 centimeter panels that monitor the ambient heat and match it, so it can't be picked out from the background radiation. The tech can also be used to replicate the profiles of other things -- you know, like a spotted calf or a Fiat 500. BAE believes the tech is scaleable for buildings and warships, the only downside being that all future commanders will have to make sure their operations are finished before dawn. Wouldn't want your soldiers to see that five o'clock (AM) shadow, now would we? [Thanks, Rob]
Lockheed Martin's SMSS autonomous vehicle wins Army competition, ships off to Afghanistan (video)
The US military's fleet of unmanned vehicles may soon get some extra support, now that Lockheed Martin's Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) has received the Army's official blessing. Designed to support infantry squads or special ops forces, the company's autonomous craft was recently crowned the winner of the Army-sponsored Project Workhorse Unmanned Ground Vehicle competition, after more than a decade of development. Measuring 11 feet in length, the SMSS is capable of transporting more than 1,000 pounds of equipment over rugged terrain, and features a set of onboard sensors that can automatically track individuals by recognizing their 3D profiles. Both the SMSS and its Block I variant can be carried aboard CH-47 and CH-53 choppers, with the latter offering a driving range of 125 miles. Three of the beasts will deploy to Afghanistan for a three-month evaluation later this year, when they'll become the largest unmanned vehicles to ever deploy with infantry. Shoot past the break for a video tour of the SMSS, along with the full press release.
