Moldova's 'Twitter Revolutionary' Goes into Hiding

Natalia Morar, the Moldovan activist who used Twitter and text messaging to organize anti-government demonstrations, has apparently gone into hiding after authorities pressed charges against her for "organizing mass unrest."

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Manpackable Laser Weapons on the Way for U.S. Military’s Future Soldiers?

It’s being reported that Northrop Grumman has successfully developed a seven-laser-chain 105.5 kW solid-state laser called “Firestrike” that’s scalable up to 120 kW by adding an eigth chain. Firestrike’s scalable “building-block” approach was apparently the answer to the long-sought weapon-level power question.answer to the long-sought weapon-level power question.

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US Navy unveils superconductor 'cloaking device' destroyer

US Navy boffins say they have made a significant breakthrough in countermeasures against sea mines - by using superconductors to nullify the magnetic signature of an American destroyer.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) says that high-temperature superconductor (HTS) "degaussing" coils fitted to the destroyer USS Higgins were first turned up to full earlier this month in trials off San Diego, and worked successfully.

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Flying-rifle robocopter: Hovering sniper backup for US troops

The goal of ARSS, as stated by the Army, is to produce a system "having the ability to accurately engage single point man sized targets with an airborne UAV ... [giving] the ground based soldier the ability to have a high-point survivable sniper at their disposal when needed. An airborne UAV can rapidly achieve lookdown angles and viewpoints required for sniper engagements, while controlled from the troop on the ground."

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RATTLRS - Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike

Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) represents a new supersonic cruise missile concept, enabling warfighters to rapidly launch precision attacks against time-critical targets, from ranges of hundreds of kilometers. When planning RATTLERS missions, users will be able to adjust fuel consumption, speed and range to address a particular mission objective. Unlike current cruise missiles, depending on a lengthy and complex mission planning process, RATTLRS will feature much faster mission preparation, taking only few minutes. Missiles will be able to strike a target after flying a distance of hundreds of kilometers, within 30 minutes from target detection.

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Atomic clock accuracy boosted

PORTLAND, Ore. — A strontium-based timekeeper providing up to 50 percent better accuracy could serve as the next-generation atomic clock.
By controlling collisions between neutral strontium atoms, the new atomic clock is said to be accurate to within one second in 300 million years, according to its inventor, Jun Ye of a joint institute formed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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Northrop Grumman Urges ABM Focus On Early Engagement And Flexibility

The U.S. government can get the most from valuable missile defense dollars by focusing on early intercept of hostile ballistic missiles through mobile and flexible defenses, according to Northrop Grumman.

"A mobile, early intercept system stands to make the existing layer of defense much stronger while also being more affordable for taxpayers in the long run"

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Seeking New BMD Strategies - Part One

The new administration of President Barack Obama has the opportunity to develop a new strategy for missile defenses, one consonant with current strategic realities and their own inclinations with respect to foreign and security policies. It needs to think creatively about the role of missile defenses in support of plans for global denuclearization

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Avenger - A new, Stealthy Combat Predator

UAV manufacturer General Atomics began flight testing of a larger, stealthier UAV dubbed as the 'Avenger'. Formerly known as 'Predator C', the new jet powered UAV made its first flights Apr. 4, 2009. The UAV's shape reflects the designer's goal to reduce the aircraft electromagnetic and thermal signature. It is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545B engine feeding from the curved dorsal intake, reducing radar reflections from the turbine blades. The exhaust is partly shielded by the V-tail which also reduces the aircraft thermal signature while serpentine exhaust eliminates radar reflections from inside the engine. The Avenger is designed to fly a 20 hour mission. The Avenger is designed to operate at altitude up to 60,000 ft and cruising speed of 400 knots.

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Net-Centric Warfare Is Changing the Battlefield Environment

Net-centric warfare is not just about technology; it is an emerging theory of war and the next art and science of warfare to be exploited. Net-centric warfare involves a cultural change in relationships that includes networking over the Internet among large groups of people. America's armed forces are now creating and executing plans using capabilities that were not available 12 years ago during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq when the military advantage still came from numbers of platforms and people in the battlespace. Today, our nation's military forces, armed with superior technology, gain power from information, access, and speed.

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A New “Open Rotor” Jet Engine That Could Reduce Fuel Consumption

NASA and GE Aviation are testing a new “open rotor” jet engine with a different design that puts the fan blades on the outside of the engine. The jet fuel consumption will be reduced by more than 30 percent.

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A Steam-Fired Jet Engine for Boats?

A Company Develops a Jet Engine for Boats Fired by Steam

A separate boiler heats water to generate steam, which is pushed at about four times normal atmospheric pressure through a hollow tube submerged in the water.
When the steam hits the water, it immediately condenses to 1,600th of its previous volume. The resulting effect is a dramatic drop in pressure — essentially a vacuum — that sucks water from the front to the back of the tube and thus produces thrust to move.

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Tiny Weapons, Jet Engines in Killer Drone Upgrades

Today's killer drone is a slow-flying, easy-to-spot turboprop plane that drops relatively-crude munitions on its targets. Tomorrow's killer drone could be a stealthy jet, firing off missiles "the size of a loaf of French bread."

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ALE-55 Towed Fighter Decoys for US Navy, Australia

“Raytheon’s ALE-50 ‘Little Buddy’ Decoys” covered a towed system that serves with F-16 Falcon/Viper, F/A-18 Hornet family, and B-1B Lancer heavy bomber aircraft. A related system is made by competitor BAE, whose AN/ALE-55 (V) consists of an electronic frequency converter (EFC) and a fiber optic towed decoy. It works together with an aircraft’s onboard electronic warfare (EW) equipment, throughout the ECM cycle of Suppression (harder to acquire or track), Deception (active jamming techniques aimed at launchers); and Seduction (active jamming aimed at the missile, and being a decoying target if all else fails).

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Raytheon Lands Army Contract To Improve Battlefield Networked Communications

"The Enhanced Position Location Reporting System Extended Frequency, or EPLRS-XF, radio gives the warfighter high-speed, on-the-move video and data exchange capabilities for a broad range of applications," said Jerry Powlen, vice president, Network Centric Systems' Integrated Communications Systems.

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Russian industry looks beyond PAK-FA

By
Stephen Trimble on April 11, 2009 9:24 PM

Alexey Federov, the head of the United Aircraft Corporation, which is sort of like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman combined, has recently disclosed interest in building a "lightweight" fifth-generation fighter after completing the PAK-FA.

PAK-FA was understood to be Russia's answer to both the F-22 and the F-35

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Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM) 'Kill Weapon' Flummoxes U.S. Navy

China’s development of an advanced long-range anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) "kill weapon" that can reportedly target, track, and destroy U.S. surface ships, including aircraft carriers, in a single strike without being nuclear tipped, due to its size. This makes the ASBM "kill weapon" the first ballistic misssile to be successfully developed specifically to attack surface ships. According to a U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) report, the missile has range of 2000 kilometers (2000km) (approximately 1,240 miles) and can reach an aircraft carrier or any other surface ship within 12 minutes at that range.

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Boeing Awarded US Navy Contract to Develop Free Electron Laser

Boeing has been awarded a U.S. Navy contract valued at up to $163 million, with an initial task order of $6.9 million, to develop the Free Electron Laser (FEL) weapon system, which will transform naval warfare in the next decade by providing an ultra-precise, speed-of-light capability and unlimited magazine depth to defend ships against new, challenging threats, such as hyper-velocity cruise missiles.

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Skunk Works reveals composite cargo X-plane

The most important thing about Skunk Works' latest X-plane -- the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) -- is its raw material. The fact that ACCA is a cargo aircraft is secondary. The modified Fairchild Dornier 328Jet is really a flying laboratory for a new type of out-of-autoclave composite material, which is specifically called MTM45-1.

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http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2009/04/photo-skunk-works-reveals-comp.html