This is what it looks like to be lasered down Raytheon airs video at Farnborough Airshow of CIWS laser shooting down drone | News.com.au.

In order to reduce costs on the allready expensive F-35, they’ve decided  to remove the shutoff valves for engine coolant and hydraulic lines and five of six dry bay fire-suppression systems. This means if they get hit by 30mm incendiary AAA rounds (very common), it’ll blow up instead of venting the extra pressure in these Read more about Cost cutting on JSF dangerous for pilots[…]

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the service’s technology development arm, announced today that LaWS (Laser Weapons System) had “successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed” a drone in flight, during an over-the-water engagement at San Nicholas Island, Calif. via Navy’s Drone Death Ray Takes Out Targets at Sea | Danger Room | Wired.com.

It’s a good document, showing that NATO is definitely heading in the right direction. However, you can tell that much of the experts are stuck in the mud a bit and that the US is using this document to flex its muscles in Iran’s direction. NATO needs to form a new and clear strategic vision, Read more about NATO’s Strategic Concept: Experts’ Report on the New Strategic Concept Released[…]

Not only is the F-35 underperforming and overpriced, it’s also not an air dominance fighter. It’s a point defence fighter with the same limitations of the F-16 when it first came out. If you want to play with the big boys, you gotta have a big stick, and the F-35 just isn’t it. Now it’s Read more about F-35 price hiked by 90%[…]

It used to be that you needed a huge cellphone network to start mapping changes in air currents, but now these guys have developed a sensor that can measure the movement and displacement of air particles using a sensor smaller than a matchstick head! The Microflown The Microflown is the worlds first and only MEMS Read more about End of stealth aircraft[…]

well well well, not that we didn’t expect it – it’s now delayed by a year and development costs are $100m over budget allready. Now if only the Netherlands had bought something like Eurofighter or Rafale. F-​​35 Delayed Again | Defense Tech.

Looks like the Rafale provides a lot more bang for buck than the F-22, at least in close range… In those six engagements, the F-22 scored one gun kill, but the other five dogfights ended in a draw, Air & Cosmos says. Another sources tells the magazine the F-22 scored two gun kills, with four Read more about Rafale vs Raptor[…]

The US Navy had 2 flying aircraft carriers – zeppelins, which launched and recovered biplanes using a skyhook. The USS Akron and the USS Macon The Sparrowhawk aircraft had their landing gear removed and had to hit a hook that slung them in a corner in and out of the ship. No arrestor cable, no Read more about Flying aircraft carriers[…]

Boeings airborne laser has had its’ first shootdown – a short range ballistic missle, which was destroyed in the boost phase: the earliest stage in flight a missle has been shot down to date. Airborne Laser hits 16-year-old goal — extremely quietly [Updated w/video] – The DEW Line.

The other five are broken. Navy has only one working submarine left | The Australian.

This is a newly overhauled unit, zero-houred. Not bad! $5M Buys the Ride of Your Life | Autopia | Wired.com.

The art of swordmaking has remained fundamentally unchanged for the past couple of centuries, but Dan Watson has gone and changed the way the steel is tempered, making for swords twice as tough and flexible as any of the old ways. He does this by making the molecular strands in the steel twist in a Read more about Angel Swords[…]

When sprayed over an area, after a while the bacteria covering mines start to glow grean, making cleanup a doddle. BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Glowing bugs could find landmines.

And it looks like the F-35 JSF will probably be even worse. This premature buckling of the landing pads by the hot exhaust fumes, mean that the pads (which you can’t just go and replace without capsizing the ship) will run out before the ship does. The USMC has issued DARPA a request to invent Read more about V-22 Osprey melts ship landing pads[…]

This is a very comprehensive flight test review of the Rafale. FLIGHT TEST: Dassault Rafale – Rampant Rafale.

The U.S. Air Force has a morale problem with its combat pilots. The issue is lack of action for the pilots. That, plus the increased use of unmanned aircraft, and the very real prospect that the age of the manned combat aircraft may be coming to an end. http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20091102.aspx