Lifeboat Foundation

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has announced the design and construction of the Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD) vehicle. The uncrewed air system developed for DARPA recently received its official X-plane designation of XRQ-73. Built in collaboration with Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, the XRQ-73 SHEPARD is a DARPA “X-prime” program leveraging hybrid electric architecture and component technologies to quickly mature a new mission-focused aircraft design with propulsion architecture and power class for the Department of Defense.

“The idea behind a DARPA X-prime program is to take emerging technologies and burn down system-level integration risks to quickly mature a new missionized long endurance aircraft design that can be fielded quickly. The SHEPARD program is maturing a specific propulsion architecture and power class as an exemplar of potential benefits for the Department of Defense,” said Steve Komadina, SHEPARD program manager.

The DARPA team includes members from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and warfighters. The prime contractor for SHEPARD is Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Aeronautics Systems sector in Redondo Beach, CA. Scaled Composites, LLC is a major supplier, along with Cornerstone Research Group, Inc., Brayton Energy, LLC, PC Krause and Associates, and EaglePicher Technologies, LLC. The XRQ-73 aircraft hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) will be a Group 3 UAS weighing approximately 1,250 pounds. First flight of the XRQ-73 is expected by year-end 2024.

South Korea is poised to enhance its defense capabilities with the launch of a revolutionary laser-based anti-aircraft weapon. Hanwha Aerospace, a leading South Korean defense firm, has begun production following a contract signed in late June with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). The contract, worth KRW100 billion (USD72.5 million), mandates the delivery of the ‘Laser Based Anti-Aircraft Weapon Block-I’ systems to the Republic of Korea (RoK) Armed Forces starting later in 2024. This advanced weapon system, developed since 2019 with an investment of KRW87.1 billion (approximately USD63 million), is set to bolster South Korea’s defense against emerging threats, particularly from North Korea.

DAPA has described the Block-I system as a new-concept future weapon system that employs a laser generated from an optical fiber to neutralize targets. The weapon is engineered to accurately strike small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and multicopters at close range. This innovative technology is silent, ammunition-free, and operates solely on electricity, making it a cost-effective solution, with each firing costing about KRW2,000. The laser anti-aircraft weapon (Block-I) represents a significant advancement in our defense capabilities. If the output is improved in the future, it could become a game-changing asset on the battlefield, capable of responding to aircraft and ballistic missiles.

Dubbed the “StarWars Project,” the weapon’s development is a crucial element of South Korea’s strategy to modernize its defense systems amidst North Korea’s increasing weapons advancements. The laser beam emitted by the weapon is invisible to the human eye and produces no sound, adding to its tactical advantages. Upon deployment, South Korea will be the first country to operate this type of advanced laser weapon system, marking a significant milestone in military technology. This strategic development underscores South Korea’s commitment to maintaining a robust and modern defense posture in an increasingly complex security environment.

Quantum Systems, the Munich-based manufacturer of dual-use reconnaissance drones that use multi-sensor technology to collect data for government agencies and commercial users, confirms for the first time the deployment of a previously unreleased AI sensor upgrade of the type “Receptor AI” in Ukraine. The new upgrade kit is based on a Jetson Orin Nvidia chip and several sensors for the Vector reconnaissance drone. The further development enables optical navigation during the day and at night and in poor visibility conditions, as well as automated AI-supported object recognition and identification. In times of electronic warfare, navigation is the biggest challenge for the use of drones.

“We are implementing the upgrade without any weight changes and with the same range. We are designing these adaptations without fundamental changes to the existing platform architecture,” says Daniel Kneifel, Director of Software Engineering at Quantum Systems.

“We are demonstrating that AI does not have to be an abstract topic, but offers tangible benefits in use. For Quantum Systems, the combination of hardware and software is crucial to being able to offer market-leading solutions in the field of aerial intelligence,” says Sven Kruck, CRO and Managing Director, Quantum Systems.

The German Navy is searching for a new storage system to replace the aging 8-inch (20cm) floppy disks which are vital to the running of its Brandenburg class F123 frigates. According to an official tender document, the ideal answer to the German Navy’s problems would be a drop-in floppy disk replacement based upon a storage emulation system, reports Golem.de.

Germany’s Brandenburg class F123 frigates were commissioned in the mid 1990s, so it is understandable that floppy disks were seen as a handy removable storage medium. These drives are part of the frigates’ data acquisition system and, thus “central to controlling basic ship functions such as propulsion and power generation,” according to the source report.

Personal radiation protection solutions for earth and space — dr. oren milstein, phd — CEO and co-founder, stemrad.

Dr. Oren Milstein, Ph.D. is CEO and Board Member of StemRad (https://stemrad.com/), a world leader in the provision of personal radiation protection solutions and is the first company to offer life-saving protection from penetrating ionizing radiation and is making the lives of first responders, military personnel, utility personnel, medical teams, and astronauts safer without compromising mission objectives. Comprised of radiation biology experts, nuclear physicists, designers, and engineers and backed by dozens of prominent doctors and scientists including three Nobel Laureates, StemRad provides cutting-edge technology to protect these heroes on Earth and beyond.

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Militaries have for years tinkered with armed drones, robo-dogs, mechanical mules and more.

Spider spidroin revives the silken splendor.

In their quest to make silk powerful again, not by status but rather by thread strength, scientists turned to an arachnoid. Dragline silk, the thread by which the spider hangs itself from the web, is one of the strongest fibers; its tensile strength—a measure of how much a polymer deforms when strained—is almost thrice that of silkworm silk.²

Beyond durable fashion garments, tough silk fibers are coveted in parachutes, military protective gear, and automobile safety belts, among other applications, so scientists are keen to pull on these threads. While traditional silk production relies on sericulture, arachnophobes can relax: spider farms are not a thing.

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In this video, we explore 20 emerging technologies changing our future, including super-intelligent AI companions, radical life extension through biotechnology and gene editing, and programmable matter. We also cover advancements in flying cars, the quantum internet, autonomous AI agents, and other groundbreaking innovations transforming the future.

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In early 2023, following an international conference that included dialogue with China, the United States released a “Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy,” urging states to adopt sensible policies that include ensuring ultimate human control over nuclear weapons. Yet the notion of “human control” itself is hazier than it might seem. If humans authorized a future AI system to “stop an incoming nuclear attack,” how much discretion should it have over how to do so? The challenge is that an AI general enough to successfully thwart such an attack could also be used for offensive purposes.

We need to recognize the fact that AI technologies are inherently dual-use. This is true even of systems already deployed. For instance, the very same drone that delivers medication to a hospital that is inaccessible by road during a rainy season could later carry an explosive to that same hospital. Keep in mind that military operations have for more than a decade been using drones so precise that they can send a missile through a particular window that is literally on the other side of the earth from its operators.

We also have to think through whether we would really want our side to observe a lethal autonomous weapons (LAW) ban if hostile military forces are not doing so. What if an enemy nation sent an AI-controlled contingent of advanced war machines to threaten your security? Wouldn’t you want your side to have an even more intelligent capability to defeat them and keep you safe? This is the primary reason that the “Campaign to Stop Killer Robots” has failed to gain major traction. As of 2024, all major military powers have declined to endorse the campaign, with the notable exception of China, which did so in 2018 but later clarified that it supported a ban on only use, not development—although even this is likely more for strategic and political reasons than moral ones, as autonomous weapons used by the United States and its allies could disadvantage Beijing militarily.