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DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird spybot takes flight (video) AeroVironment Develops World's First Fully Operational Life-Size Hummingbird-Like Unmanned Aircraft for DARPA • Two-wing, Flapping Aircraft Hovers and Flies in Any Direction • Total Weight of Two-thirds of an Ounce Includes Batteries and Video Camera WASHINGTON, at AAAS Conference, Feb. 17, 2011 – AeroVironment, Inc.

DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird spybot takes flight (video)

(AV)(NASDAQ: AVAV) today announced it has accomplished a technical milestone never before achieved -- controlled precision hovering and fast-forward flight of a two-wing, flapping wing aircraft that carries its own energy source, and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control. The milestone was part of the Phase II contract awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to AV to design and build a flying prototype "hummingbird-like" aircraft for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program. The technical goals for the Phase II effort were set out by DARPA as flight test milestones for the aircraft to achieve by the end of the contract effort. PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Summer 2004. Overreliance on Technology in Warfare: The Yom Kippur War as a Case Study From Parameters, Summer 2004, pp. 46-56.

PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Summer 2004

Modern military journals are replete with articles claiming that recent advancements in technology constitute a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). The authors of these articles claim that innovations in weapon systems—for example, the development of precision guided munitions—and the capacity to wage network-centric warfare are symptomatic of this RMA, and will afford the United States an unprecedented level of situational awareness and the ability to apply force rapidly, accurately, and precisely without fratricide or collateral civilian casualties.1 Should these prophets be believed? PULSEO2DA FIREARMS TRAINING MANUALS - Pulse Firearms Training. PulseO2DA Firearms Training, Inc., offers three manuals for sale to the general public which describe the theory, movement and fundamentals necessary to dominate a lethal force confrontation.

PULSEO2DA FIREARMS TRAINING MANUALS - Pulse Firearms Training

Bauplan Solarballon. FiveStagesTalk. Rhetorics & Heretics - Home. Copter sets a laser-powered record. Freakalytics.com- Defense and the National Interest. Developing the touch « Fast Transients. Ibis raised an interesting question in one of his comments: If Fingerspitzengefühl can be taught, why do so few people have it?

Developing the touch « Fast Transients

Two points: First, Fingerspitzengefühl is a skill, so although most people can get better at it, some are going to get a lot better. Second, it’s a strange kind of skill, not for performing complicated or even dangerous tasks mystically well, but for sensing what is going on among groups of people in conflict and then influencing what happens. Murphys Law of Combat Operations. Murphy's Military Law. Strategic Operations Hyper-Realistic Tactical Training San Diego. Us joint services manuals. Timeline - Dreaming 5GW. Military Geography. Israeli Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said that Israel is preparing to resettle potential Alawite refugees in the Golan Heights, the valuable highlands which oversee much of northern Israel and the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Military Geography

If this plan is true and it is implemented then it will be one of the most odd, complex geopolitical schemes in Middle East history. For background, Alawites are a religious-tribal minority in Syria comprising ten percent or so of the country's population. They believe Ali, cousin of Muhammad, was God incarnate. They also believe Jesus was God in the Trinity and Alawites practice Communion as the body and blood of Christ. Orthodox Islamic scholars have traditional classified Alawites as a Christian sect, a Shia heresy, or a pagan religion that disguises itself in the majority religion.

The Alawites have run Syria under the Assad family since the 1970s. The fear of ethnic displacement is very high in Syria, much higher even in post-Arab Spring Egypt. Cultivating “High Conceptual Thinkers” DoD Military Lessons Learned - Joint, Army, Air Force, Navy, Mar. Way_of_war.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) How We Lost the High-Tech War of 2007. WORSE YET FOR THE AMERICANS, advances in computer software eroded the demand for highly trained specialists to operate complex weapons.

How We Lost the High-Tech War of 2007

Easy-to-learn graphic displays allowed poorly educated soldiers to quickly master elaborate but user-friendly war-fighting machines, rather like a 15-year-old American figuring out how to dispense Coca-Cola at a fast-food restaurant by pressing the right pictograph. Praise The One Above, the microchip ended the educational and training advantage the American military had enjoyed. Because the Americans believed their information technologies reduced the need for conventional combat forces, they disbanded such forces in favor of trendy "information" units. Pritzker Military Library. Some of them have a hard time with the sand and heat in Iraq, but you won't hear them complain. They don't miss their families while they're in the field, and they won't hesitate to carry out an order, no matter how unpleasant it may be.

They are not men or women; they are the more than twelve thousand robotic systems currently deployed in Iraq. This is not a book about the future. In Wired for War , P.W. Singer explores how robotic systems have already changed military operations. Global Guerrillas: GLOBAL GUERRILLA SWARMING. Project on Defense Alternatives. Preface This design for a UN legion was commissioned by Dr. Carl Kaysen, Chairperson of the Committee on International Security at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for inclusion as an appendix in their report, Appendix: Design for a Streamlined UN Legion in Carl Kaysen and George Rathjens, Peace Operations by the United Nations: The Case for a Volunteer UN Military Force.

It is a scaled-down version of the UN legion proposed in Vital Force.. Strategic and Operational Factors Relevant to Force Design Several aspects of peace operations are especially relevant to the design of a UN force. Turning to the issue of combat capability: although peace operations would not require a field force to engage in full-fledged warfighting -- distinguished by wide-ranging and protracted offensive and defensive operations -- missions often will involve intermittent combat. Fred On Everything. Plus ca change, plus ca doesn't February 29, 2010 Oh lord. Oh lord. Young Boy strip searched by TSA (Original w/ Full Story Description)