popularmechanics.com
One of Japan’s two new aircraft carriers will travel to the U.S. in 2024.The ships are Japan’s first real aircraft carriers since World War II.Japan was once the world leader in carriers, but swore them off after the disastrous war.More than 80 years after Pearl Harbor, a Japanese aircraft carrier is scheduled to make a visit to the East Coast of the United States—this time, as one of America’s strongest allies. The visit, set for 2024, will see one of the country’s two new carriers, Kaga or Izu…
2 months ago
popularmechanics.com
A secret report detailing an official fly-off between the F-35 Lightning II and the A-10 Warthog has been released, five years after the competition took place. Forced from the Pentagon by a Freedom of Information Act request, the report is heavily censored but does not paint the F-35, long touted as a replacement for the A-10, as a clear-cut winner. In an exclusive, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) released a redacted copy of the report it received from the Air Force. The report detai…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
The U.S. Army has taken possession of its most promising anti-drone swarm technology yet, a new system that uses microwave radiation to disable drones, literally causing them to fall out the sky en masse. The system, based on Epirus’ Leonidas counter-drone system, sends out a wide beam capable of targeting several drones at once, decimating incoming swarms.Defense contractor Epirus has delivered a prototype weapon known as Indirect Fire Protection Capability–High-Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) to th…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
On October 8, just hours after the unprecedented attack on Israel, the Pentagon very publicly reached for its biggest stick. As pitched gun battles between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists continued across southern Israel, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford into the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The deployment made it crystal clear that the U.S. had taken notice of the crisis and was preparing to respond. It also made it clear that—despite recent pr…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
President Biden’s administration is proposing taking older nuclear bombs and rebuilding them into new ones, so the Pentagon can replace the largest nuke in its arsenal. The proposed B61-13 would replace a much bigger, more dangerous bomb, but would still have one of the largest yields in the American nuclear arsenal. The new bomb would follow two other nukes recently rebuilt from older weapons, the B61-12 gravity bomb and the W76-2 submarine missile warhead—all part of an effort to keep pace wit…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
Countries have traditionally built fortifications to protect themselves from outside attack. But fortifications are not as useful as they used to be, as armies have become increasingly mobile, and are able to simply go around them.Some of the most effective walls, bunkers complexes, and national defenses have involved using seawater, walls of rock that stretch for hundreds of miles, and generous amounts of paint to transform bunkers into fake houses. Armies build fortifications to aid the defend…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
A Hong Kong-registered merchant ship is being implicated in what appears to be an intentional attack on NATO targets. Finnish investigators claim that earlier this month the Hong Kong-flagged container ship Newnew Polar Bear deliberately damaged a natural gas pipeline and telecommunications cables located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. The ship is reportedly heading into the Arctic region, en route to China, likely to avoid investigation.A Broken AnchorIn the early morning hours of Oc…
3 months ago
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A video presented to Congress by the Pentagon’s UFO investigators just might be of an ordinary balloon after all. The striking video, taken by a MQ-9 Reaper drone over Syria, fascinated audiences around the world. An open source investigation, however, strongly proposes that the spherical, silvery object captured by the drone is nothing more than a balloon from a local festival.The video was presented earlier this April at a NASA public hearing by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the head of the Pentagon’s…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
Israel’s Iron Dome defense system protects the country from rocket attacks.The system uses radar and interceptor missiles to target rockets headed toward population centers.As effective as it is, the Iron Dome is an expensive way to deal with the rocket threat, and will eventually be replaced with a laser defense system.The videos are mesmerizing: salvoes of Palestinian rockets, their exhaust nozzles illuminating the night sky above, sailing across the heavens only to disappear in a flash of lig…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy is set to experiment with operating unmanned aircraft from its aircraft carrier flight decks. Next month, the Royal Navy will conduct tests of the General Atomics Mojave drone from the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The tests could lead to the Mojave and other drones like it being adopted by high-end navies, easing the skyrocketing cost of naval aviation.Prince of Wales Meets MojaveAccording to Breaking Defense, the Royal Navy will conduct carrier MQ-9B fli…
3 months ago
popularmechanics.com
USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, shot down nearly 20 cruise missiles and drones. The cruise missiles and drones were launched from Yemen, and are believed to have been targeting Israel.The engagement took place over nine hours, and involved using both the ship’s gun and missiles to down the hostile craft.A U.S. Navy destroyer spent a tense nine hours at sea last week, using its battery of guns and missiles to shoot down a total of 4 cruise missiles and 15 drones.Yemen…
3 months ago
