The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) recently demonstrated autonomous operations by multiple “swarms” of unmanned air and ground vehicles, unattended ground sensors, video cameras and other devices linked together in an intelligent network powered by EdgeFrontier platform technologies from Augusta Systems, Inc.

via NAVAIR And Augusta Demo Operations Of Multiple Swarms Of UAVs And Sensors.

Basically using one operator to control a fleet of aircraft.

The RAF did tests on swarm UAV operations from an airborne controller in a Tornado in 2007 using QinetiQ technology called Autonomy

I wonder if they were using the fluid dynamics model to control these swarms?

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This thing was proposed from the outset, but I have no idea what happened to it. Now finally they’ve got it going, and they’re claiming the new nozzles add 7% thrust and reduce fuel consumption by 5%.

VIDEO: Eurojet proposes thrust-vectoring upgrade for Typhoon.

A sad sad day indeed – pilots who will never fly in an actual plane, just remotely control a drone, that they will likely never see either.

AF Class of 2009: Pilots Who Won’t Fly.

Apparently the USSR actually went and built a doomsday machine – something that would launch command missles which would transmit coordinates to other ICBMs in the event that the Soviet Union was destroyed. The system, called ‘Perimiter’ and known as ‘Dead Hand’ basically ran through some checks and then delegated launch authority to whoever it could reach.

The Soviets kept this a secret as their principle use for the system was not deterrence towards the US, but to calm hotheads in the Soviet military and to stop them from throwing up independant first strikes when the going got stressy, as the hotheads knew that if the USSR went down, they’d get their revenge.

Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine.

The Dutch ministry of defence has apparently known since 2005 that the budget reserved for the JSF buy (to replace the KLu F-16 fleet) was in nowhere near enough for the planned 85 F-35s they needed. The Dutch MOD has answered parliamentary questions about this with the statement that they expected a budget increase and that this is why they’ve never mentioned the budget shortfall.

So basically the Dutch MOD and KLu have been supporting a fighter buy they knew they couldn’t afford and have been throwing sand in the eyes of the parliament and are now scrambling to cover their arse.

Kamervragen betreffende budgettekorten voor vervanging van F-16 | Ministerie van Defensie.

PICTURES: EADS flies Barracuda UAV demonstrator in Goose Bay.

And continuing on with the US military madness, the alternate Rolls Royce power source for the F-35 is to stop receiving funding from. This is a huge slap in the face to the UK.

US Senate axes F-35 alternate engine -23/07/2009-Washington DC-Flightglobal.com.

The US has just gone and done something I really can’t see the point of besides politics: they’ve gone and chopped their air dominance fighter after a production run of under 200 aircraft.

Instead they want to lay their eggs in the F-35 JSF basket – which performs poorly against the current Australian F-18s and will be chewed up by mostly anything the Soviets have as well as the Eurofighter, Gripen and Rafale. Does the US really want their air cover to be provided by the next generation F-16: a poor man’s jack of all  trades but master of none? Yes, right now there aren’t many threats against the F-15C and F-18E/F but the Su-30s will spread through the world, and they do eat these aircraft for breakfast. Without a counter like the F-22 you can’t own the air space. Without air space, your military options are severely limited.

Obama: More F-22s an inexcusable waste – The DEW Line.

The Moray Eel Hunter is a drone that seeks out single swimmers closing in stealthily on your coast at 8 kts. Once it finds you it lights up, makes noise, sends signals and swims around you.
So how long before it gets armed?

Who’d have thought it? Pictures of the MiG factory online for all to see!

This is like a taser without wires. It has a maximum range of 27m.

How to shame your WWII veterans: don’t attend the D-day anniversary, or fund the 500 remaining troops the trip to attend. The UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, won’t be attending and claims sending the vets there will be too expensive. There will be no official recognition from London, even though the US, French and even Germans will be commemorating the event.

This is a huge list of the Army Field Manuals. From how to point a gun, to how to run an infantry brigade.

Mounting the ipod on the rifle and then adding the external ballistics calculator app Bullet Flight, allows you to set bullet profiles and enter environment information.

The Royal Navy has only lauchend it’s conversion to Windows for Warships a month ago or so, and allready they’re infected by virusses! Not that it would have been any different if it had been OS X for warships (yes, macheads, you do in fact get virusses too) but still… who didn’t see that coming?!

The missile shield will be upgraded by multiple kill vehicles being carried up by as a single payload in a rocket. There are two competing tenders: Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Lockheed guides the mini rockets from a central command unit, Raytheon’s system has each of the warheads acting as a seeker / controller in theory, but one of them becomes a master after launch and transmits the targetting plan to the other vehicles.

Yup, the USA military is definitely past it’s prime – first the grounding of the entire F-15 fleet, then the ongoing A-10 grounding, the ancient tankers which have no replacement coming and now the F/A-18s are being grounded and inspected for structural faults found in many earlier models around the aerolon hinges.
These kind of structural faults indicate one thing: ancient machinery.

After the F-15 grounding, which left the US without an air defence in the beginning of this year, now many A-10s have been grounded due to cracks in the wings. With the tanker acquisition being put on hold, it’s looking more and more like the USAF is an organisation filled with geriatric aircraft. And congress wants to scale down JSF acquisition and block F-22 acquisition!

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) staged an excercise pitting the JSF against the 4th generation russian fighters and it got it’s arse handed to it in the turning game. Link goes to the movie. Memorable quotes are:

I’ve been saying it enough – JSF is a dud!

Apparently Bush has done something smart!
In July he signed an order allowing US troops to go into Pakistan and conduct gound assaults on known Al Qaeda / Taleban locations. They will notify the Pakistani government, but they won’t ask for permission.

And trick your enemy satellite intelligence into thinking you are way way mightier than you are – just try to use an electric pump, as this stuff’ll have you blowing for HOURS.