The next step toward further integrating semiautonomous aircraft into the U.S. Air Force and building trust with human operators would be through simulations and training exercises, a former Air Force secretary said.Frank Kendall, the Air Force’s 26th secretary who served under former President Joe Biden, said in a Thursday roundtable hosted by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that gathering experience in the field and through simulations help operators establish trust with autonomous systems, like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft.“You have to accumulate a basis for trust over time, and so I think we just need to think carefully about how we…
Author: Tommy Grant
As the fifth anniversary of the U.S. military’s chaotic departure from Afghanistan approaches, tens of thousands of the Afghan allies America promised to protect remain at risk — either still under threat in their home country or facing instability and limbo abroad. The veteran-led organization AfghanEvac hopes a new AI-powered tool will benefit from the extensive data it’s gathered about the tortuous visa and asylum application process to help new applicants find the most promising pathways to help. The Visa Pathways and Relocation Information Center, or V-PRIC, launched earlier this month and has seen more than 30,000 visits in its…
This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The End of the American Dream. Targeting military assets isn’t going to wreck the global economy, but targeting key infrastructure could. The damage that has already been done to oil and natural gas infrastructure in the Middle East is going to take years to fully repair and rebuild. But so far, the damage that has been done has been somewhat limited. If both sides decide to start conducting all-out attacks on oil and gas infrastructure, the world would be facing an unprecedented energy crisis with no end in sight. Unfortunately, it…
LONDON – As militaries prepare for a new age of air combat defined by ever-evolving unmanned aerial systems, one defense company is betting that the workload of fighter pilots will swell far beyond flying an aircraft to include directing swarms of drones. At Farnborough Airshow this week in London, BAE Systems unveiled a helmet-mounted prototype it says is intended to explore how future pilots may be able to operate under battlefield conditions they anticipate to be saturated with unprecedented amounts of data. Called Project Intuity, the demonstrator is intended to help pilots manage input from multiple sources by projecting information…
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadMost people’s preparedness plan is a pile of gear in a closet. The tags are still on. Nothing’s been tested. Nothing’s been trained. Kevin Estela has a name for that approach: the easy button. And it doesn’t work. Kevin joined me on the podcast to talk about what does work. He taught high school history for 14 years before going full-time into wilderness instruction, first as director of training at a private company and now through his own work. He’s the author of 101 Skills You Need to Survive in the Woods and Beyond…
A nuclear survival kit is not just a bigger version of your bug-out bag. It has to answer three problems a standard disaster kit was never built for: invisible radiation you can’t see, taste, or smell, a fallout period that can force you to stay sealed indoors for days or weeks instead of hours, and the very real chance that emergency services, hospitals, and supply chains will be overwhelmed or unreachable. Get the contents wrong and you’re improvising during the most dangerous window of the entire event. This guide breaks down exactly what belongs in a nuclear survival kit, why…
You’ve lived through enough boom and bust cycles to know the warning signs don’t always look the same twice. Sometimes it’s inflation eating your savings account, or a credit crunch that locks up cash overnight. Other times, it’s an economical event on the other side of the world that shows up in your gas station receipt three weeks later. Nobody knows the exact date something breaks. But the pressure is already visible if you look: mortgage delinquencies are creeping up, consumer credit is maxed out, and commercial real estate loans are coming due at rates nobody budgeted for. The families…
Every prepper has heard of the “gray man” concept at some point. The idea is simple: during a major disaster, you don’t want to stand out in a crowd. You dress plainly, avoid flashy gear, and move through the world without getting noticed by people who might be looking for someone to rob, exploit, or follow home. This same principle can apply to your home as well. In a long-term disaster or societal breakdown, your home sends out signals all day and all night, whether you mean it to or not. A well-kept lawn, solar panels on the roof, or…
A U.S. service member was killed on Saturday “during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance” in northern Iraq, U.S. Central Command said.The unexploded ordnance was from a “downed Iranian one-way attack drone,” Central Command said in a statement released Sunday.The death of the U.S. service member in Iraq follows in the wake of two U.S. service members killed in action on Friday in an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack on U.S. and partner forces in Jordan, U.S. Central Command announced. Four more troops had to be medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan. Those four service members have since been…
Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news from Outdoor Life. This story, “Night of the Cottonmouth,” appeared in the July 1971 issue of Outdoor Life. You can read more about Paul E. Allen and his snake hunting background (including how his father died from a cobra bite) here. The saw grass was eight feet high and very thick. I was hip-deep in the warm water of the roadside ditch, able to see only a step or two in any direction, and I was moving very cautiously. I knew that danger of the deadliest kind lurked…