Could Pakistan Be Interested in Money?: “The Pentagon wants the world to know: When the American military stops spending billions per week in Afghanistan and eventually goes home, the Afghan economy is gonna be totally fine. After all, they’re sitting on trillions in mineral deposits, just waiting to be mined.”
A year ago, the New York Times gushingly pronounced that Afghanistan, with at least $1 trillion in untapped minerals, was poised to become “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Now, the Pentagon has announced plans to train Afghans in “airborne geophysical exploration.” The project will harness the latest in geophysical mapping technology, which uses aerial sensors to detect the specific quantity of minerals in precise locations, and how readily accessible they are.
Nah. Someone else, maybe China, will get to develop the lithium because America can’t be accused of exchanging “blood for batteries”.
How Come The Infidels Aren’t Dying of Thirst Yet?: Maybe because they can trade fuel for water. “For the last decade, the U.S. Army has invested millions of dollars in research to develop a practical device that could extract water from the air. In the last five years several of these devices were developed, but none has yet proved suitable for wide use in a combat zone. The latest one can reliably produce 2,000 liters (500 gallons) a day from one 20 foot shipping container size device. The down side is that this system uses a liter of fuel for each five liters of water produced. In addition, even with sound-proofing, this system is very noisy. But this device means you don’t have to run as many truck convoys (carrying water) through hostile territory.”
The technology is fairly well known. The USN, the US Army and the FEMA are known to be interested.
Guided Hydra: Space Daily says the ONR has successfully tested guided 2.75″ rockets. “Using inertial guidance, they flew to a point where the infrared terminal guidance system took over. Onboard imaging infrared seekers identified their intended targets among five maneuvering small boats. The rockets adjusted trajectories to intercept and eliminate two of the boats.” Wired suggests the US Army would be users of guided 2.75″
Triple Target Terminator: Here’s something the media would like; the T3: DARPA’s triple-target terminator which sounds like either the best thing since unsliced bread or the missile equivalent of the F-111.
The speed, maneuverability, and network-centric capabilities of the Triple Target Terminator (T3) would significantly improve U.S. aircraft survivability and increase the number and variety of targets that could be destroyed on each sortie. The T3 program will develop a high speed, long-range missile that can engage air, cruise missile, and air defense targets. T3 would allow any aircraft to rapidly switch between air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities. T3 would be carried internally on stealth aircraft or externally on fighters, bombers and UAVs. The enabling technologies are: propulsion, multi-mode seekers, data links, digital guidance and control, and advanced warheads.
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