Navy Abandons Zumwalt-Class Destroyer

US Navy cancels its “stealth-ship” the Zumwalt-class Destroyer (DDG 1000), because of increased costs.

Joint Strike Fighter: Air Force Wants Boeing To Stop Talking Smack

Ok, that is not a direct quote.  Major General Charles R. Davis, USAF, the Program Executive Officer for the F-35 Lightning II Program Office, is far to articulate, educated, and gentlemanly to utter such a comment.  But, reality is not that far off.
According to Flightglobal, LtGen Davis is not pleased with, what he characterizes as [...]

Taser Gun Integrated With Glove = Taser Glove

From the ultimate military-technology blog Danger Room, comes video of the “taser glove,” a taser gun integrated with a cool-looking black glove.  Now if they would only come out with a Michael Jackson version.
Video:

Video: Firefight Between Coalition Forces And Anti-Afghan Forces

Video of firefight captured by UAV.

Marine Corps Joint Strike Fighter F-35B Makes First Flight

Marine Corps Joint Strike Fighter makes first flight.

SecDef Sends More Prdator and Reaper Drone Aircraft To Iraq

SecDef Gates orders more UAV to Iraq.

Air Force Wants New Drone

From the best technology-military blog Danger Room, comes the story of the Air Force’s desire to replace the Reaper with a new “hunter-killer” drone. MQ-9 Reaper first deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2007. It looks like the Air Force wants some of the $500 million budgeted for drone aircraft.

yojoe (in drone [...]

Who Will Build The Drone That Flies Forever

From Danger Room, the competition is on between Lockheed, Boeing, and Aurora to build the future drone, which may stay aloft for up to five years.
yojoe out

Secretary of Defense Gates to Air Force: Get More UAV In The War

SecDef Gates, according to Aviation Week, continues to bemoan the lack of UAV in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is doing something about it though, including directing the Air Force to,

rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not.

Could this signal an end to the Air Force requirement [...]

Upgrades To Air Force AC-130: With Video From Afghanistan

Over at the always-informative zerohostel, there is a post about the continuing evolution of the Air Force’s close-air-support gunship the AC-130:

the biggest change to the AC-130 airframe was in it’s electronics and avionics. AN AN/APG-180 radar (derived from the same ground and air radar that the Air Forces F-15E uses) was added to allow tracking [...]

Iraq Update: Too Few Drones In The Air

Danger Room is reporting that there is a shortage of military drone aircraft in Iraq. And insurgents are exploiting this weakness.
Is there still a question about the usefulness of drones?
yojoe out
For more on unmanned aircraft:

Marine Corps: V-22 Osprey Engines Are Failing In Iraq

Over at the definitive military-technology blog Danger Room, it is being reported that the engines on the V-22 Osprey are wearing out, much faster than expected. The Osprey is the tilt-rotor aircraft used by the Marine Corps for troop transport. It is capable of transporting 24 combat-loaded Marines 242 [...]