Author: Braxton Taylor
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DETROIT—Defense startup Epirus has secured a new Army contract to deliver a pair of high-powered microwave systems that can make a swarm of drones fall from the sky, following years of prototypes and recent tests in the Indo-Pacific. Military use of the technology—which can stun anything with a computer chip in its tracks—to counter unmanned aerial systems comes as global conflicts are demonstrating how consequential drones can be on the battlefield and at home. “The frequencies we operate are all based upon smart electromagnetic interference frequencies,” Andy Lowery, Epirus’ CEO, told Defense One on the sidelines of a new manufacturing summit, Reindustrialize.…
A new study has found that exposure to military burn pits increases the risk of mental health conditions and brain injuries, a finding researchers say could lead to better understanding of those conditions in veterans.The study, conducted by various universities, including the Brown School of Public Health and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and Department of Veterans Affairs epidemiologists, examined the medical records and deployment data of nearly 440,000 Army and Air Force members who deployed from 2001 to 2011.The researchers found that service members who deployed to bases with large burn pits had higher rates of anxiety and…
The Marine Corps is drilling down on its plan to reclassify Marines tasked with keeping the AV-8B Harrier alive, a sign that the service is finally getting closer to retiring the decades-old jet as new F-35 Lightning IIs hit the fleet.Last Thursday, the service released a force-wide message that identified five Harrier-aligned jobs that will be up for reclassification starting next month. The move is expected to affect up to 202 Marines who once worked on the jet, and the message warned that, if those troops had not already started the transition into new roles, their future jobs would be…
The Army is preparing to replace its long-serving M240B machine gun, launching a multibillion-dollar program to field a next-generation automatic weapon for frontline troops, according to newly released budget documents.Dubbed the Future Medium Machine Gun, or FMMG, the new weapon will mirror the M240B in function as a machine gun primarily for dismounted combat units. Service documents say it is intended to offer improved killing power and operational capability over the current platform, which has been in use since the 1970s.”The FMMG is a belt-fed, crew-served, direct-fire weapon system that will enable the rifle platoon to organically suppress and destroy…
Whaling is a generational profession, steeped in lore and heritage. Burly hunters take to the sea in hopes of impaling the largest mammals on earth. Not without controversy, the tradition of whaling still occurs in far-off places. Visceral images and videos occasionally leak, stoking the flames of global dissension.Many are familiar with the annual whale hunts on the western Alaskan coast and the bloody waters of the Faroe Islands, though few are familiar with the tropical whalers of the Caribbean.St. Vincent and the Grenadines is an island nation comprised of 32 islands and cays. Historically, whaling has taken place throughout…
An amendment added to the House version of a must-pass national defense bill calls for more research and scrutiny into cancer concerns among troops who worked with America’s nuclear missiles.A provision added by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., in the House draft of the annual legislation seeks to review the occupational health and safety conditions of the facilities where troops oversee and work on the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The issue hit close to home for the retired Air Force brigadier general and commander turned lawmaker.”I met a constituent who was dying from cancer a few months back, and it…
This year’s Talisman Sabre exercise with Australia included several firsts, the deputy commander of U.S. Army Pacific told reporters Tuesday, chief among them the first time the service’s new mid-range missile launcher practiced shooting at a ship in the Western Hemisphere.The Typhon launcher shot an SM-6 anti-ship missile at a target 166 kilometers away, Lt. Gen. JB Vowell said during an event with George Washington University’s Project for Media and National Security. The launcher was positioned at the Bradshaw training area several hundred miles from Darwin, Australia.“We’ve shot many different maritime targets over the years, perfecting where we are now,…
It used to start sometime around mid-July. I’d wake up with a strange and unexplainable urge that goaded and poked at me like a mallard feeling the sudden need to migrate. I’d compulsively start rearranging all the camo clothing in my closet and cleaning all my guns. At night, I would come home from work and find myself binge-watching my favorite hunting videos or staring sadly out the window at the leaves and wishing to hell that they would hurry up and change color. Yep, I was jonesing for hunting season bad.Over the many years that I’ve suffered from this…
Northrop Grumman has resumed work on a major part of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program and has finalized a plan with the Air Force to restructure the over-budget and delayed effort, company executives said Tuesday.“In close partnership with the Air Force, we reached agreement on a restructure approach, which will lead to re-establishment of the program baseline. The work suspension on most aspects of the command-and-launch portion of the program was lifted, and we’ve resumed work on launch facility requirements and design,” CEO Kathy Warden said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call. After projected costs for Sentinel ballooned to $141…