army

Starting in the spring, the Hummingbird will be on sentry duty in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army is getting ready to deploy a trio of prototype A160 Hummingbird drones as it evaluates the aircraft for a more full-fledged development program. One key characteristic that sets these unmanned air vehicles apart from others, such as the Predator, already more famously serving in the war zone is that the Hummingbirds are rotorcraft--that is, they fly like helicopters rather than planes.

The Hummingbirds will be equipped with DARPA's Argus-IS sensor system, which features a 1.8-gigapixel color camera--gear that the Army a … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--A holiday "tree" lot here at Levi Strauss & Company's headquarters is offering up a green alternative to live trees.

Antlre Creative, a San Francisco-based eco-conscious design company, created 100 percent recycled cardboard trees, which grew into a forest in Levi's buidling lobby (shown above).

The large trees sell for $35, and small ones for $25. Proceeds from the fundraiser go to Friends of the Urban Forest. These "greener" trees are produced and manufactured entirely with solar energy and are inspired by recycling.

And while we're in the holiday spirit, here's … Read more

The U.S. Army has successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft that can travel five times the speed of sound and reach anywhere on Earth in under an hour.

Described by the Pentagon as a "glide vehicle, designed to fly within the earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speed and long range," the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) was launched aboard a rocket from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.

It hit a target at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, some 2,300 miles away, in less than 30 minutes, according to Department of Defense and AP reports. … Read more

Web sites black out their pages to protest online censorship and SOPA, the Salvation Army is using Square, and Google Music arrives with free online storage, music sharing tools, and a few freebies.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Army Sniper puts you behind the scope of a standard-issue U.S. Army sniper rifle, which you must use to pick off enemy troops from afar. Without your long-distance support, your unit has no chance of accomplishing its critical counter-terrorist mission.

Army Sniper's controls are extremely simple. Tap anywhere in the vicinity of an enemy to engage the scope. Then, tilt your mobile device around in space to adjust your aim. Tap the button on the right to shoot, the button on the left to slow your movements and make finer adjustments in your targeting, or anywhere else to … Read more

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Wednesday, August 10.

Anonymous says it will target Facebook on November 5. CNET blogger Chris Matyszczyk asks, "Regardless of whether this is a fake threat, a rogue threat or a full-bore one, is Facebook scared? It surely has some reason to be."

Kindle Cloud Reader app allows you to get Kindle library on your PC or tablet from Safari or Chrome. You can read Kindle books on the iPad using the Safari browser. Apple may choose to disable … Read more

The U.S. Army needs more steel in the ground when it comes to renewable energy.

The Army today announced a special task force called the Energy Initiatives Office (EIO) designed to speed up deployment of solar and wind power at its bases. The task force is being created to help meet the Army's ambitious goal of getting 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.

"We view ourselves as a target-rich environment for doing a better job with taxpayer dollars and being good stewards of the environment," said John McHugh, secretary of the Army … Read more

Instead of human divers, the Army has used a robotic underwater vehicle to help recover and destroy more than 300 pounds of explosives found off Hawaii in an area that was a dumping ground for munitions after World War II.

Working from a barge, operators deployed the remotely operated underwater munitions recovery system (Roumrs) over Ordnance Reef, an area off the Waianae Coast of Oahu.

Equipped with lighting, scanning sonar, and video cameras, the off-the-shelf ROV has force-feedback manipulators that mimic hand and arm movements of its operator. It recovered 74 pieces of exploded ordnance and 2,300 small arms munitions, clearing most of the area, the Associated Press reported. … Read more

This is the week of the robot-controlled vehicle. Sometimes, it works wonderfully. And sometimes it crashes into another car that looks just like it.

Still, the U.S. Army is undeterred, because a press release from Lockheed Martin declares that four Squad Mission Support System robo-jeeps are being dispatched to Afghanistan.

The SMSS is, so Lockheed Martin says, the biggest unmanned vehicle (11 feet long) ever to be deployed with the U.S. Army.

In essence, the SMSS is one vast unmanned mule. It can carry half a ton of supplies for up to 125 miles, according to Defense Tech. … Read more