reaper

Every so often in the history of war, a new weapon comes along that fundamentally rewrites the rules of battle. This is a story about a revolution in unmanned aviation that is doing just that.

Most people know them as drones; the Air Force calls them unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. And right now, there are dozens of them in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan, hunting down insurgents, every minute of every day.

They've become one of the most important planes in the United States Air Force--and yet the pilot is nowhere near the aircraft or the battlefield. … Read more

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Monday put forth the Pentagon's 2010 budget proposal, essentially a complete overhaul to the way the military spends money.

It would change the way lucrative government contracts are handed out, or in more official terms, the process of "procurement, acquisition, and contracting."

The budget includes a myriad of cuts, but there are also some interesting additions that show the military's increased interest in robotics and communications, particularly in unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).

Proposed additions include buying 30 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for 2010 (513 over the next five years); increasing … Read more

Crave has a very special correspondent for Halloween--Death himself. The harbinger of doom has seen some appalling catastrophes during his millenia of presiding over the downfall of mankind, but nothing so heinous or gruesome as what he descibes today. Yes, it's a list of bad things that can happen to your tech.

From IMing your boss by mistake to your hard drive failing, the Grim Reaper reveals the top five disasters that keep geeks awake at night--as well as a surprising regard for actor and comedian Bobby Davro. Don't have nightmares, nerds! Muahahahahahaha!

(Via Crave UK)

A next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle piloted from Nevada has fired a weapon in Afghanistan in its first-ever strike on enemy combatants.

The MQ-9 Reaper on Saturday launched a Hellfire missile in a location known as Deh Rawod. The strike, the Air Force reports with great understatement, was successful.

A bigger, more heavily armed follow-on to the Predator UAV, the Reaper has been flying missions in Afghanistan since the last week of September. Until this weekend, however, it had been limited to its secondary role as a tool for surveillance and reconnaissance. With the missile-firing sortie, it has now lived up … Read more