Left of Boom

Part One of the Washington Post's series on counter-IED technology.

Blackwater Down

While it's somewhat distant from the main purpose of this site -- international defense technology -- the Blackwater scandal has been such a high-profile item in the news that it's difficult to ignore. Here is a sample of the coverage at one of our sister sites, Primary Sources on Newsvine:

Is Blackwater About to Be Booted From Iraq? (Sept 17)

Blackwater Scandal Widening (Sept 18)

Cookie 'n' Buzzy Go To Washington (Sept 24)

Hoaxers, Posers and Turkey Shooters (Sept 30)

Tech Flashback: The First Aircraft Carrier

Courtesy of the folks at Military.Com comes this
awesome newsreel footage of the U.S.S. Ranger, the world's first aircraft carrier.

COTS Spytech = Espionage for the Everyman

We live in an increasingly monitored environment, where Google Earth can zoom into your neighbourhood, streetcams broadcast real-time footage of what's going on outside your house and wireless nannycams can covertly capture video from your own living room. Indeed, despite high-profile discussions about abuses by government espionage apparatuses such as the NSA, it is becoming increasingly apparent that for us average Joes, today's surveillance society means that spying is more apt to be done by our co-worker, the opposing team's coach or the store where we shop. (read more)

Canada Deploys Husky Mine Clearance Vehicles to Afghanistan

The deadliest war within the war in Afghanistan entered a new era yesterday as Canadian combat engineers tried out, for the first time, some high-tech devices designed to keep Taliban improvised explosive devices from killing Canadians.

A South African-made Husky mine detection vehicle, which looks like an awkward road grader with wheeled extensions trailing behind to detonate buried explosives, was put through its paces on a dusty field near the Kandahar airfield. (read more)

Additional Coverage: Toronto Star

Iraq Unveils an Indigenous Fighter Jet

In the midst of recriminations over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia, the Iranian head of state has sent signals this past week that rather than trying to find a diplomatic solution with Washington and its European allies he will continue to maintain a defiant and belligerent stance over Teheran's weapons programs.

The latest in a series of "messages" being sent to the West is the news reported this past week of Ahmadinejad presiding over a military parade that featured a cornucopia of weapon systems now in the hands of the Iranian armed forces. Among these was a new Iranian-designed and produced fighter aircraft, the Sa'eqeh (Lightning), which had just begun series-production in August according to Iran's official state news outlets.

Alternative Fuels Research -- Water-Powered Car Demonstrated

This is being demonstrated for now on a private civilian automobile. But if it proves to actually work -- and this guy Klein is not offed by somebody at Exxon -- you can bet the military will be interested in putting it to work. A water-powered Humvee, at least, even if the first water-powered Raptor is a ways off...

DRDC Unveils Latest Research Using Simulators

Today, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the US Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), together with General Dynamics Canada, presented the latest research using a revolutionary combat systems simulator.

The event marked the end of the third of a series of experiments within the Multi-Role Combat Vehicles Technology Demonstration Project (MRCV TDP), that saw Canadian and American vehicle crews operating each other's equipment in a simulated environment. This type of international demonstration illustrates the benefits of leveraging the work of allied laboratories to determine the systems' engineering, tactics, techniques and procedures before vehicles are built. This will help to avoid potential costly and time-consuming field solutions that might require retrofits to the equipment of coalition forces. (read more)

Osprey Squadron Off to Iraq

The first combat squadron of tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys has quietly set off to Iraq, ushering a new and controversial form of aerial technology into 21st-century warfare.

A Marine Corps aviation squadron and 10 Ospreys sailed for Iraq on Monday aboard a small Navy aircraft carrier known as an amphibious assault ship, said a Marine Corps spokesman, Maj. Eric Dent. (read more)

Trying to Break the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

It weighs 63,300 pounds and can carry 17 Marines from a ship 25 miles offshore into battle.

But before it becomes the Marine Corps' next amphibious assault vehicle -- four years from now -- Lt. Col. Brian Buckles and his men are charged with running it into the ground.

"Our job is to break it," Buckles said this week about the work he oversees on the development of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, a tanklike behemoth being tested at Camp Pendleton. "We're here to push its limitations and then tell the manufacturer what didn't work and why." (read more)

U.S. Army to Test Lightweight Humvee

The Army said Tuesday that it will begin testing a nonmetal Humvee that is 900 pounds lighter than its conventional counterpart so it can add extra armor to better protect soldiers from roadside bombs.

This lightweight Humvee is made of Fiberglas, balsa wood, foam and carbon reinforcements.

Army officials have not yet committed to buying any of the vehicles, whose frames and bodies are made of a combination of Fiberglas, balsa wood, foam and carbon reinforcements held together with resin, said Steven Lockard, president and CEO of Warren, Rhode Island-based TPI Composites Inc., which built the prototype vehicle. (read more)

Irobot Stocks Tumble on Contract Loss

Robotics company shares tumble as word emerges about a contract loss to a company started by a former employee (read more)