Drone Swarms Are Here

It's here. The US military can throw hundreds, perhaps thousands of drone at you; they are synchronized and coordinated. They can talk to each other and perform pre-defined tasks.

More drone/UAV testing here.

H/T Funker530

Isreal's Hi Tech

From the NY Post:

[...]Today, Israel is a high-tech superpower and one of the world’s top weapons exporters with approximately $6.5 billion in annual arms sales.

Since 1985, for example, Israel is the world’s largest exporter of drones, responsible for about 60 percent of the global market, trailed by the US, whose market share is under 25 percent. Its customers are everywhere — Russia, South Korea, Australia, France, Germany and Brazil.

In 2010, for example, five NATO countries were flying Israeli drones in Afghanistan. How did this happen? How did Israel, a country not yet even 70 years old, become a superpower with one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world that is changing the way modern wars are fought?

The answer, I believe, is a combination of a number of national characteristics unique to Israel.

This is an interesting article. Israel kicks butt. But we knew that.

A Hollow Military

Obama hates America. There are few areas where this is more apparent than in the condition of our nation's armed forces.

Forget about the longtime standard of a military capable of fighting two major wars simultaneously, which the United States abandoned four years ago. The current military would have trouble fighting one major conflict.

That is the assessment of some prominent defense experts, who contend the military has degraded to dangerous levels after eight years under President Obama.

“We have lost our edge,” said Daniel Goure, senior vice president of the Lexington Institute. “We are no longer technologically superior in a whole list of areas … This is a military that is on the brink of collapse.”

For years liberals have argued that America cannot be the world's policeman. But most other nations do not operate under the same guiding principles of freedom and personal liberty that America possesses. It is foolish to assume otherwise.

Throughout recorded history we are  reminded that powerful nations will extend their sphere of influence and crush those that oppose them. The only way that this oppression can be resisted is through the application of military power.

If and when our political leaders determine that we are not capable of resisting foreign influence, they will surrender our interests to please other nations. Under whose sphere of influence do you wish to live your life? China? Russia? Iran?

Our overwhelming superior military strength is what has kept us free. That freedom could be lost if our military becomes weak and ineffective, which is exactly what Obama's agenda is trying to accomplish.

“We are actually below peacetime levels,” said John Venable, a retired Air Force colonel who serves as a senior research fellow with The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense. “But we’re actually fighting a war.”

This is the change that Obama promised.

• The Army needs 25 brigades to fight one major conflict. It has 31, but Venable said only 10 are “mission ready.” 

• The Navy had 272 ships, below its 308-ship goal, and Venable said only about a third of the vessels are ready for combat. 

• The Air Force needs 600 planes to fight one major conflict. Although the service currently has 1,159, Venable said less than half are ready for combat. 

• The Marine Cops has 23 battalions, more than the 13 needed to fight one major conflict, but the Heritage report estimates only half are ready.

Story here and more here.

Pocket Sized Surveillance Drone Company Acquired

An article from Recode:

The leading maker of thermal imaging sensors, Flir, bought a Norwegian drone maker for $134 million, the company announced Wednesday.

Flir acquired Prox Dynamics, which makes the Black Hornet, a tiny nano-drone used by the military and law enforcement for surveillance and reconnaissance. The drone is deployed by throwing it in the air and is small enough to fit in a soldier’s pocket. Despite its compact frame, the Black Hornet carries three cameras.

 

The palm-sized aircraft is used by the U.S. Marines, the British Army, the Australian Army and Norway’s Armed Forces.

These drones can easily fit in the palm of your hand.

President-elect Donald Trump wants to resume law enforcement access to military equipment, so Flir acquired Black Hornet at an opportune time, when its client base in the U.S. may soon swell.

They're not cheap. I can see a new law enforcement grant initiative whereby federal tax dollars will be used to purchase these devices. The Black Hornet drone and all the equipment necessary to operate it costs $1950,000. Few small or even medium sized police agencies can afford that price tag.

If these drones become common place there might be an ancillary business boom for residential swimming pool domes . Swarms of miniature drones, cheap civilian models and otherwise, could infest skinny dipping sites. It could resemble a bee migration.

And what would you call a swarm of surveillance drones?

There's a bevy of quail, a dole of doves, a siege of herons, a gaggle of geese and a raft of ducks.

A dollop of drones?  

USS Zumwalt - $4 Billion Down The Crapper

The Navy's newest is broken ... again.
They can't shoot the guns and now they can't make it go for the second time in a month.
I'm wondering if they can keep the damn thing afloat.
But - hey - they got queers and transgender freaks on board so we're good.
I'm so happy that the US Navy has its priorities straight.

The US Navy's newest destroyer broke down while transiting the Panama Canal, colliding with the Canal lock walls and forcing the $4 billion dollar ship to resort to a tow from a tugboat. The USS Zumwalt was towed to a former U.S. naval station in Panama where it will undergo emergency repairs. This is just months after a similar incident in September.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Every ship has a shake down cruise to iron out the bugs, but it''s not supposed to shake itself to pieces.

Story here.

Mr. Gatling

1 inch Gatling Gun   -  1877

In April 1861, Richard Jordan Gatling watched hundreds of Union soldiers march through Indianapolis, ready to ride the rails to the front. In the opposite direction came a never-ending stream of badly wounded men, to say nothing of those who lost their lives. Gatling set about inventing a 'labor-saving device for warfare' that he hoped would minimize the number of men needed to fight a war, and thus minimize the number of men exposed to its horrors.

Working throughout the summer of 1861, Gatling developed the invention that would carry his name though history: the Gatling gun. The Gatling is the most famous of late 19th century's manual machine guns. In an age of slow-loading rifles, the Gatling offered unprecedented firepower. Even today, a century and a half after its design, the gun retains its iconic status.

Story here.

Richard J. Gatling

1818-1903

From Wikipedia:

Gatling was born in Hertford County, North Carolina in 1818. At the age of 21, Gatling created a screw propeller for steamboats, without realizing that one had been patented just months prior by John Ericsson. While living in North Carolina, he worked in the county clerk’s office, taught school briefly, and became a merchant. At the age of 36, Gatling moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he worked in a dry goods store and invented a rice-sowing machine and a wheat drill (machines to aid in planting rice and wheat, respectively). The introduction of these machines did much to revolutionize the agricultural system in the country. After an attack of smallpox, Gatling became interested in medicine. He graduated in 1850 with an MD. Although he had his MD, he never practiced; he was more interested in a career as an inventor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Gatling was living in Indianapolis, Indiana. There he devoted himself to the perfection of firearms. In 1861, the same year the war started, he invented the Gatling gun. A year later, he founded the Gatling Gun Company.