Tuesday, October 16, 2007

President: Korea Plans to Become Top Ten Arms Exporter by 2020

President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday (Oct. 16) that Korea will be able to independently develop advanced weapon systems and rank as the world's 10th-largest arms exporter by 2020.

"The government will continue to expand financial aid and investment in core aerospace and defense industry technologies, and strengthen joint export marketing activities in these industrial fields," Roh said in a speech at the opening ceremony of the Seoul Air Show 2007. (read more)

Anti-IED Silly String Goes to Iraq

After months of frustration, a mother of a soldier in Iraq has found someone to ship about 80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops, who use the foamy substance to detect trip wires on bombs.

Marcelle Shriver plays with Silly String as 80,000 cans of it are loaded for U.S. troops in Iraq.

"I am so happy right now, I am shaking. I just think it's awesome that it's finally going," Marcelle Shriver said as boxes were loaded into a truck Monday afternoon. (read more)

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Taiwanese Mil Tech on Display

Taiwan's first military National Day parade in 16 years offers a fascinating glimpse into Taiwanese military technology. This article from AFP has some great photos of Taiwanese special forces troops, and describes in some detail the indigenous missiles included in the parade. It also notes that not all of Taiwan's missiles were shown:

But the island's first cruise missile, the Hsiung-feng 2E -- which because of its range could reach the Chinese mainland -- was not on display following reported pressure from Taipei's main ally Washington.

The missile's specifications are not available, but
analysts say
it has a range of at least 600 kilometres (375 miles) and could be launched on land or at sea.

That could bring airports and missile bases in southeastern China, as well as cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong, within striking distance.

Also on display were home-grown UAVs (most likely those developed by the government-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) and
first announced
in 2005) and the Tien Kung III, an indigenous anti-tactical ballistic missile (ATBM) developed by the Chun Shan Institute of Science and Technology, and meant to be the equivalent of the Patriot PAC 3.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

India Deploys First Cruise Missile

The Indian Army has already inducted its first group of truck-launched missiles, now it's deploying its first naval cruise missiles, with 10 more missiles to follow.

The BrahMos cruise missile is said to be highly accurate with low observability, and has already been through 14 trials, all of which have been successful. (read more)

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Scientists Demonstrate Cloaking Device -- For Tiny, Tiny Soldiers

Physicists at the University of Maryland have demonstrated the world's first
true working cloaking device
: an object of desire in the military survivability community at least since the first Romulan Birds of Prey were depicted in classic Star Trek back in the Sixties.

The catch? So far, it is only able to cloak objects 10 micrometers or smaller.

Info-Tech: Blogging the Crackdown?

The Christian Science Monitor ruminates on the difficulties of perpetrating a good ol' fascist "dissent crushing" in the information age.

The Future of Driverless Trucks

This feature, describing U.S. efforts to develop follower technology and driverless vehicles, focuses on the efforts of Oshkosh and its Terramax product.

Israel vs Syria: Who Ya Got?

David Fulghum of Aviation News contributes
this article
to the recent discussions about what may or may not have taken place in Syrian airspace on September 6. Fulghum reports that what was employed by the Israelis to avoid detection during their raid on an as-yet undisclosed Syrian target was "something similar to the U.S.-developed “Suter” airborne network attack system [which allows] users to invade communications networks, see what enemy sensors see and even take over as systems administrator so sensors can be manipulated into positions so that approaching aircraft can’t be seen".

Until now, both Israel and Syria had been silent about the strike, widely believed to have been executed by Israel to pre-emptively disrupt Syrian nuclear explorations being conducted in association with North Korea. Syria, predictably, dismisses these speculations as fabrications.

Iran, who some suggest purchased the Syrians' anti-air radar systems, is said to be worried about their own vulnerability, since they operate the same Russian-built systems. Meanwhile, Russia has sent technicians to Syria in efforts to uncover the cause of the shortfall and to upgrade the system.