navy

Reddit was recently taken to task for its role in misidentifying suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. While that incident resulted in an official apology, we also often get reminders that Reddit can be a force for very good things.

One of the those good things just happened. It involves an 87-year-old Royal Navy veteran, a damaged photo, and his Redditor grandson.

Steven Withey is rightfully proud of his grandfather, who was a submarine sonar and radar operator with the British Royal Navy during World War II. Withey was helping set up new PC when his grandfather showed him a photo of himself in uniform as a young man. It was seriously cracked and creased, and his grandfather wondered if it could be touched up a little.… Read more

The U.S. Navy's X-47B is one step closer to being ready to start making test flights off of aircraft carriers after completing its first-ever arrested landing.

According to the Navy, the X-47B, also known as the Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS), successfully grabbed hold of a special arrester cable with its tailhook, quickly stopping the aircraft during the May 4 test. That marked an important milestone in the development of the UCAS program.

The jet-powered X-47B is a prototype meant to fly autonomously, unlike many drones such as the Predator, which are usually flown remotely by ground-station-based pilots. … Read more

The U.S. Navy is continuing its flirtation with laser weapons.

The latest tip-toeing move toward a more serious relationship came today with word from the Navy that it plans to deploy a solid-state laser weapon system aboard the USS Ponce in fiscal year 2014. Other than that, though, the announcement was absent any details about the capabilities of the particular laser weapon system or the expectations for its performance, though the Navy talked up the virtues of laser weapons in general as a countermeasure against threats including aerial drones and fast-moving small boats.

The Navy also described the deployment … Read more

"We're gonna need a bigger jellyfish." I imagine that's what the Navy and researchers at Virginia Tech were thinking when they started development on Cyro, a robot jellyfish that is 5 foot 7 inches across and weighs a hefty 170 pounds.

The Navy has been into robot jellyfish before, but none have been on this scale for sheer size. This big boy is a much larger version of an earlier robot called the Robojelly, which was only about as large as a hand.… Read more

We now know that the pilotless X-47B aircraft has its sea legs.

The prototype X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System(PDF) this week completed its first at-sea tests as it gets ready to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier sometime in 2013, a first in naval aviation history.

That eventual flight will be the big moment for the X-47B. But the test phase that just ended is no small potatoes. It's a tricky thing for any aircraft to maneuver around the hectic, cramped, and crowded space of a carrier flight deck. In the test phase that just … Read more

OK, so it was on dry land, not on an aircraft carrier. But first steps are first steps.

On Thursday, the U.S. Navy carried out its first-ever steam catapult launch of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System -- see the video embedded below -- and was apparently quite happy with the way things turned out. Before the UCAS demonstrator can make an actual take-off from a carrier, it needs to show that it can handle the unique rigors of being flung slingshot-style into the air instead of making a more leisurely jaunt down a runway.

"This test, in … Read more

A handful of U.S. Navy SEALS have been reprimanded for leaking military secrets to video-game maker Electronic Arts while working as paid consultants on the game Medal of Honor: Warfighters, according to a report.

Seven of the SEALs have been disciplined, including one who was involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and four others are being investigated, according to CBS News.

Medal of Honor: Warfighters is a military combat shooting game that prides itself on being as realistic as possible. Players are involved in real-world scenarios, such as battles in Afghanistan and attacks on Somali pirates. … Read more

In 2011, Navy Seal Team Six was prepping for a possible raid to capture or kill a high-value target living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The target, of course, was Osama bin Laden. A satellite image of the training facility located in Perquimans County, N.C., (via the Atlantic Wire and cyptome.org ) was captured by Microsoft's Bing search as it was ramping up its satellite data.

It's identified on the map as the Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity, near the Albemarle Sound.

The staged Bin Laden compound closely resembles the actual compound below:

The buildings … Read more