The Pentagon is known for its ominous pet projects, but here’s one we can honestly say doesn’t have us losing any sleep: Cyborg crickets. No, seriously, cyborg crickets. This is a good thing! Why? Simple. When a building collapses, say from an earthquake or a terrorist bombing, survivors are often trapped in the rubble.

The Pentagon’s wacky sci-fi department DARPA has been working on robotic hummingbird-based drones to serve as miniature spies. They’re not nearly as agile or adorable as real hummingbirds, but DARPA is well on their way to achieving that dream. Program manager Todd Hylton is aiming for “an approximately 10-gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5-meter-per-second wind gusts.” Right now, though, the teeny robobird can only fly for about 20 seconds at a time. But with some hard work, some day we will produce a robotic hummingbird that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. Wait, is fear the right word? [ Wired ]

We’ve seen plenty of tiny UAVs (or NAVs — Nano Aerial Vehicles — as they’re also known), but none quite like the robo-hummingbird that’s been in development at DARPA-contractor AeroVironment for the past couple of years. While we haven’t heard much about it during that time, the company recently completed its most advanced prototype to date, dubbed Mercury, and it’s taken advantage of the opportunity to show off all the progress it has made. As you can see in the video after the break, the bot is able to fly about and hover in place by mimicking the wing movement of a real hummingbird and, of course, be controlled completely untethered. What’s more, the firm says that the final version will actually look like a real hummingbird as well, and be able to be controlled from up to a kilometer away — even inside buildings, where a hummingbird won’t look at all out of place. [Via Danger Room ] Continue reading DARPA contractor shows off tiny robo-hummingbird UAV Filed under: Robots DARPA contractor shows off tiny robo-hummingbird UAV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

The Pentagon’s current crop of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are insanely powerful—the “Hellfire” is so named for a reason—but also fairly imprecise, often killing innocent, nearby civilians. The DoD’s new UAVs hope to cut down on such casualties. In a recent briefing, the Department of Defense laid out its new plans: Smaller and far more precise UAVs with badass names like ” Suburb Warrior ” and “Sniper” that will hunt in groups, rather than just blowing suspected hideouts to pieces with Hellfire missiles. The Suburb Warrior, for example, is designed to fire volleys of mini-missiles in tight formation, which makes a nice change from previous missiles that often demolished entire city blocks. Unfortunately, these new UAVs should see production in about five years, by which time who knows what kind of battles we’ll need to fight—or who’ll be leading the Pentagon.

It’s just been a few short months since a proposed bill called for the creation of a National Cybersecurity Advisor , but it looks like there’s now not one but two new positions in the offing, with both the Pentagon and President Obama himself announcing plans for some newly elevated offices charged with keeping the nation’s networks secure. While a specific “Cybersecurity Czar” hasn’t yet been named, the White House position will apparently be a member of both the National Security Council and National Economic Council and, in addition to coordinating U.S. response in the event of a major attack, the office will also be tasked with protecting privacy and civil liberties. Details on the new Pentagon office, on the other hand, are expectedly even less specific although, according to The New York Times , it’ll be a military command that will work to coordinate efforts now scattered across the four armed services, and will apparently serve as complement to the civilian office in the White House. Read - Reuters, “Obama to name White House cybersecurity czar” Read - The New York Times, “Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Cyberspace Wars” [Thanks, Ryan] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets , Networking White House, Pentagon announce plans for new cybersecurity positions originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 15:51:00 EST

Boeing was pretty bullish about its aircraft-mounted laser system only a few short months ago, but it looks the program’s future is now considerably more uncertain, even as the sole aircraft to be equipped with the rig begins its first flight tests. Apparently, everything with the tests themselves has been going according to plan, with both the high-energy laser itself and the “beam control / fire control apparatus” along for the ride, and Boeing is even reportedly still on track for a missile-intercept demonstration later this year. The recent funding shakeup at the Pentagon, however, has thrown Boeing and its partners in the project for a bit of a loop, with the department now apparently intending to keep only one of the planes in service (instead of the proposed seven) as it transitions the rest of the program towards a purely R&D effort. Filed under: Misc. Gadgets , Transportation Boeing’s Airborne Laser begins flight tests, future uncertain originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:28:00 EST

After unidentified hackers made away with untold amounts of protected data on a highly-classified fighter jet project , the Pentagon decided to step up their cybersecurity. The first step? Creating the badass-sounding Cyber Command . At the moment, cybersecurity is incredibly important (Obama compared it to nuclear and biological weapons in terms of its danger to national security) and, from the looks of it, incredibly badly managed. To start with, the Department of Homeland Security is officially in charge of cybersecurity, except when they aren’t. For example, the National Security Agency has been exerting more power and controlling more and more of the cybersecurity efforts, and the Department of Defense sometimes either manages it themselves or contracts it out to private companies.

Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project and made off with several terabytes of code. The Pentagon, and consequently the Wall Street Journal , suspects Chinese involvement. The Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II Fighter, is the most costly project in Pentagon history, so it’s a little bit problematic that some spies scampered in and nicked an unknown, but undoubtedly large, quantity of data without getting anywhere near caught. The cyber-spies encrypted the data on its way out, so nobody’s really sure where they came from or where the data went, but some IP addresses have been tracked to China, prompting a little bit of back-and-forth between the DoD and the Chinese government.

The EXACTO (EXtreme ACcuracy Tasked Ordnance) rifle will conceivably be able to fire accurately at far longer distances than are possible now by combating weather with self-guiding bullets . Yes, you read that right. The Pentagon has been working on the .50 caliber EXACTO for about a year already, and its main focus is to overcome climate conditions to stay accurate over a longer range. Here’s some jargon they’ve used to describe the kind of tech that might do such a thing: Fin-stabilized projectiles, spin-stabilized projectiles, internal and/or external aero-actuation control methods, projectile guidance technologies, tamper proofing, small stable power supplies, and advanced sighting, optical resolution and clarity technologies. Basically, we’re talking about bullets that can adjust to weather conditions in mid-air, either through external control or the abilities of the bullet itself. Currently, snipers are really only accurate up to about 800 meters.