Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100503/1057479282/dailydirt-more-advanced-weapons.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100503/1057479282/dailydirt-more-advanced-weapons.shtml

Pick your ammunition, any ammunition you want... for an automatic gun that can shoot hundreds of rounds per minute. The US Army hasn't perfected such a weapon just yet, but it's looking for proposals that could make more versatile guns possible. [url]

Math has become an important aspect of all kinds of military weapons -- without math, we wouldn't be able to aim projectiles very effectively over long distances. Now, more and more computer simulations are being used to develop defenses and to help predict where enemies might attack. Would you like to play a game of thermonuclear war? [url]

Anti-aircraft-carrier missiles could take out about 4 acres of naval runways on the open seas -- in one shot. China has been developing anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) for years, and they're probably operational by now. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100503/1057479282 Tue, 8 May 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100521/1052099528/dailydirt-flying-weapons.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100521/1052099528/dailydirt-flying-weapons.shtml Bat bombs were created during World War II, but after spending a couple million dollars on development, the project was cancelled. Here are just a few more modern examples of flying weapons that are currently under development.

• Mav6 is building deadly blimps -- attaching guided missile systems to a huge, optionally-manned airship. This blimp can hover for a week a time, and it's surveillance capabilities could be coming back to the homeland... [url]
• The Airborne Laser was a proof-of-concept weapon that could take out missiles (in flight!) by shooting a laser from a modified Boeing 747. It's not really a practical way to shoot down missiles, but the idea seems to pop up about as often as putting lasers on sharks. [url]
• The US Navy is planning to convert some of its unmanned Fire Scout helicopters into autonomous pirate hunters. These ship-launched helicopters would be able to keep an eye out for small boats and possibly deter Somali pirates on the open seas. [url]
• To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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