Army to Speed High-Tech Gear Into Combat

Tiny 'Switchblade' unit already has seen use on land by Army

(NEWSER) - It's small enough to be carried in a soldier's backpack—and now, it's heading underwater. The Switchblade kamikaze drone will be test-launched from a Navy submarine next year. The Army already has used what USA Today calls "essentially a self-propelled, remotely guided missile"; now, the Navy is getting ready to fire it in a canister from a submarine to the water's surface. Once there, the drone self-launches to spy on enemy positions from above and relay coordinates. More»

Tests already under way for robot killers of the future

(NEWSER) - Could robots be the soldiers of the future? The Pentagon is currently working on drones that can identify—and will eventually be able to eliminate—targets without any human controlling them. The Washington Post details a demonstration last fall in which a pair of model-sized planes, working in tandem, located a brightly colored tarp, in part by analyzing photos taken by an onboard camera. It’s a major shift from current drones, which fly autonomously but require humans to identify targets and fire. More»

'Spy flies' expected by 2030 as drones take ever-bigger war role

(NEWSER) - Predators are just the beginning: The US military is building drones of all shapes, imitating bugs and birds not only in flight techniques but also in tiny size. An Ohio Air Force base has a flight lab known as the “microaviary,” where experts study “how you hide in plain sight,” an engineer tells the New York Times . At the opposite end of the spectrum are spy balloons that look like blimps and fly thousands of feet in the air, taking video of insurgent activity below. More»

Unmanned craft will take out Gadhafi targets

(AP) - President Obama has approved the use of armed Predator drone aircraft in Libya to improve the precision of low-level attacks on ground targets, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today. The first Predator mission was flown today, but the unmanned aircraft—armed with Hellfire missiles—turned back early because of poor weather conditions, said Marine Gen. James Cartwright. More»

(NEWSER) - Bush-holdover Robert Gates is using his position in the Obama administration to try to remake Washington’s biggest bureaucracy, refocusing it on the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports. Gates has pushed the Pentagon to shift from preparing for high-tech conventional wars of the future to the current unconventional conflicts. And thanks to his decisive style, it’s actually happening. More»