Items tagged with navy
In what feels like a Déjà vu moment, the U.S. Navy has decided to ditch its electromagnetic railgun weapons system. Back in 2018, we reported on a Chinese warship spotted with its own railgun after the Navy scrapped the idea then. Now, the railgun has seemingly been tossed once more in favor of hypersonic missiles in a hyper-expensive game of catchup. In the past several years, the Associated Press reports that the Office of Naval Research has spent approximately $500 million on research and development for the now-defunct railgun project. While the technology could have been close to being deployed, the range, rate of fire, and wear and tear with every shot posed massive issues...
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The U.S. Navy has come to a conclusion that many drivers of modern vehicles would agree with; adding touchscreen interfaces for controls can often makes things more complicated. The U.S. Navy has now found out after an investigation into the aftermath of a fatal USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) accident that sailors aboard the Navy's destroyers also much prefer traditional mechanical controls over touchscreens. The investigation into the collision found that the touchscreen system in the destroyer, DDG-56, was complex and sailors had been poorly trained to use the system. This resulted in the loss of control of the ship just before it crossed paths with a merchant ship in the Singapore Strait. After...
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The United States Navy commissioned its newest fast attack submarine, the USS Colorado, over the weekend during a ceremony at the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut. As one one would expect, the USS Colorado is a marvel of undersea technology and design. What you probably did not expect, however, is that part of the submarine can be controlled with none other than an Xbox controller. Fancy that! Strange as it may seem, the USS Colorado is the first attack submarine to allow sailors to use an Xbox controller to maneuver the photonic mast, which is a sensor that essentially acts as a periscope, but without the periscope tube. Traditionally, submarines have used joysticks to...
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The U.S. Navy has spent half a billion dollars working to perfect a new type of projectile weapons technology that could be used in current and future naval ships. That gun is the railgun, which has always sounded like something out of a video game or science fiction. Unfortunately, it looks as though the project is possibly going to be scrapped after all the money and time was put into the research and development of the weapon. The strange part is that the weapon isn't possibly being scrapped because it doesn’t work; the railgun works quite well. The beast can toss a projectile down range travelling at 4,800 mph for distances of up to 100 miles. The problem so far is that the high-tech...
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We’re used to hearing about civilians having their personal information compromised on a regular basis. However, it should be noted the U.S. military isn’t immune to such tomfoolery, as the Navy announced this week (right before a major holiday for obvious reasons) that “sensitive information” for over 134,000 sailors has been accessed. The failure point in this case was a compromised laptop that belonged to a contractor working for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). It is unclear at this point how, exactly when or where the laptop was accessed by a third-party. However, the end result is that data on exactly 134,386 sailors — both current and inactive — was compromised, including names and social...
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VR and AR companies might have a huge focus on gaming right now, but both technologies can be extremely useful in many other practical, real-world applications as well. The Navy underscored this recently with the unveiling of a new augmented reality heads-up display that doesn't look quite as sleek at consumer VR kits, but it has a job that's of a far more critical nature than shooting zombies or putting shaped blocks in correct holes. Straight out of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division comes the Divers Augmented Vision Display, a smart helmet of sorts that divers wear underwater to be fed lots of important information, very quickly, right in front of their eyes. We've seen...
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“I feel the need, the need for speed!” As an 80s child, I have seen Top Gun at least a few dozen times, possibly more. It was my first introduction to Tom Cruise and sparked my fasciation with military aircraft (I must also give partial credit to the lesser known film Iron Eagle for also feeding my addiction). Nearly three decades later, my eyes have been opened up to the thick layers of “cheese” spread all over the film, but my childhood love for the film has not ceased. And it looks as though movie producers are hoping that nostalgia reigns supreme as the development of a Top Gun sequel continues to advance. During a press junket for the upcoming film Terminator: Genisys, Skydance CEO David...
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Windows XP enjoyed a nice, long run, but after over a decade of faithful service, Microsoft finally pulled the plug on the legacy operating system and discontinued support in April of last year. All but the most diehard fans have since moved on, though it's still installed on more desktops than Windows 8.1, and on almost as many as Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 combined. You can count the U.S. Navy's system among them. According to a contract page at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Navy opted to pay Microsoft over $9.1 million dollars to continue offering custom support services for Windows XP. The contract also covers Office 2003, Exchange 2003, and Server 2003. As part of the...
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Remember when skirmishes were fought on land, air, and sea? They still are, though in today's world, you can add cyberspace to the list. Cyber warfare has become a point of focus, and lest anyone doubt it, consider that that the U.S. Navy is looking to buy zero-day exploits, particularly those used on commercial software that foreign threats might be using. Dave Maass, a researcher for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stumbled upon the zero-day request on FedBizOpps, a site that government agencies use to post contracting requests. On the site, the U.S. Navy posted a listing saying that the government was looking for "access to vulnerability intelligence, exploit reports and operational exploit...
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Unless you were actually in the service, perhaps you didn’t know that the U.S. Navy has been transmitting internal messages in all caps since the mid-1800s. Thus, every directive that’s been handed down (or message that’s been sent up) has been typed as though shouted--which is perhaps fitting for a branch of the armed forces. Now, the Navy will be moving to a different system of sending messages, and it’s one that will finally offer lower case letters in addition to upper case. This will make messages a little easier to read, which is no doubt a welcome change for younger sailors who are used to email, although some of the old sea dogs probably would prefer things stay...
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The never-ending one-upmanship among warfighter titles has reached a new level: Seven Navy SEALs have been disciplined for allegedly giving secret information to the makers of Medal of Honor: Warfighters. EA, which publishes the game, has been touting its use of paid military consultants in the production of the new title. The Navy took note, and has come to the conclusion that some of the information shared was classified. The punishment isn’t a slap on the wrist. According to a Pentagon official quoted by the Chicago Tribune, the reprimand may end the careers of the SEALs involved. Obviously, the Navy isn’t clueing anyone in to which secrets were shared with the videogame...
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Nintendo's Wii Fit has been a quiet revolution. The device has been stamped with an approval by the American Heart Association, it has sparked many to exercise, it has been used in schools and physical fitness programs, and now it just might find its way into the Navy. Think of a video game that could have accomplished that five years ago. Or good luck trying, we should say. A new report on the Wii Fit has shown that the U.S. Navy is considering its use to get recruits in shape, as many would rather exercise with a video game than just hit the boring, old-fashioned gym. There's debate over whether Wii Fit actually leads to substantial results, but even the consideration is huge news. Navy Surgeon...
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