US Navy fighter jets will carry an autonomous anti-ship missile

The US Navy may have a robotic ace in the hole when it fights enemy warships in the future. It’s planning to put Lockheed Martin’s autonomous LRASM (Long Range Anti-Ship Missile) on the F/A-18 Super Hornet by 2019, giving jet fighters a weapon that tracks and wipe out targets mostly or entirely on its own. Most of the missile’s details are secret, but it’s smart enough to dodge obstacles on the way to vessels as far as 200 nautical miles out — and that’s the unclassified range, which suggests that it’s more capable in practice. There are also versions of LRASM in the works that will launch from ships, submarines and other aircraft, so this intelligent projectile could soon be a mainstay of the US military.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: DefenceTech

The US’ drone pilots aren’t getting enough training

The US is increasingly relying on drones for recon and air support, but you almost wouldn’t know it from how little training those drones’ pilots get. A Government Accountability Office report has revealed that both Air Force and Army crews frequently have a tough time getting enough flight hours to stay current. Many Army pilots find themselves being assigned menial tasks that keep them from their main role, ranging from guard duty to mowing the lawn. Air Force operators on the front lines have no problems getting experience at the controls, but they’re often limited to whatever combat missions they can fly. The USAF only has about 85 percent of the qualified pilots it needs to be truly effective, according to the report.

Both branches are already trying things to boost both flight hours and the number of available pilots. The Air Force is handing out bigger bonuses to those who stick around for the long haul, for example, while the Army is pushing for more drone instructors. However, the experience problem is making improvement difficult. The Army had to lower the requirements for the drone teachers’ school just to get enough candidates, so many fresh-faced UAV pilots are getting their wisdom from mentors who themselves lack know-how. Unless the military treats drone training as a high priority, there’s a risk that the overall quality of the US’ robotic air fleet will drop.

[Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

Filed under: Robots

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Via: Washington Post

Source: Government Accountability Office

SpaceX gets the all-clear to launch most NASA science missions

After three long years, SpaceX finally has approval to launch most of the US’ scientific missions. NASA tells Spaceflight Now that it recently greenlit the use of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for “medium-risk” payloads, which covers all but the most valuable cargo. That rules it out of launching missions destined for places like Mars, but it also opens the door to more opportunities for Elon Musk and crew. Although they already have government contracts, they should have a much easier time getting that all-important space agency business. The company won’t have to wait long to prove its chops, either. A Falcon 9 will carry Jason 3, a satellite meant to measure ocean roughness, in late July.

[Image credit: SpaceX/Steve Jurvetson, Flickr]

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Spaceflight Now

Fingerprints will soon tell cops if suspects are on cocaine

A research team from the University of Surrey in the UK has reportedly developed a new, noninvasive drug test for cocaine that accurately detects its presence in your system through your fingerprints. Specifically, it looks for two common cocaine metabolites: benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine. These can be found in blood, sweat, and urine using a mass spectrometry technique known as Desorption Electrospray Ionisation (DESI). And since the metabolites dissipate from our sweat more quickly than in urine or blood (in which it can persist for up to a week), law enforcement will one day be able tell if a suspect is currently high as opposed to having been high a few nights before. What’s more, “we can distinguish between cocaine having been touched,” Melanie Bailey, the study’s lead author, told Motherboard, “and cocaine having been ingested.” Plus since the sweat sample is tied to your fingerprint, it’ll be nearly impossible for someone to swap it out for a clean batch.

The research is still in its very early stages, however. According to the team, they need to collect much more data on the effects of dosage and timing before they can move on to reliability testing. Still, they remain confident that this technology will be available to law enforcement within a decade.

[Image Credit: Shutterstock / HamsterMan]

Filed under: Science

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Via: Motherboard

Source: Royal Society of Chemistry

The internet risks hitting peak capacity soon, but it can be saved

The internet has more than one capacity problem to worry about, apparently. Researchers met in London this week to tackle growing concerns that fiber optic cables, which represent the internet’s backbone, are hitting their physical limits. An Alcatel-Lucent representative warned that we could hit this barrier, about 100 terabits per second, in five years — not good news when 8K video and other data-hungry technologies are just over the horizon. The only conventional solution would be to add more cables, which isn’t always practical.

Thankfully, the gathering also discussed some unconventional ways of getting around this seemingly insurmountable barrier. One technique would ramp up the power in fiber and use calculations to reconstruct a usable signal on the other end, while another would involve fibers with multiple cores that offer much more bandwidth in a similar space. The challenge is putting these theories into practice before it’s too late. As with processors, there’s no guarantee that big breakthroughs will come in the nick of time.

[Image credit: Getty Images]

Filed under: Networking, Science, Internet

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Via: Gizmodo

Source: New Scientist