Hacker News with Generative AI: Military Technology

China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order (scmp.com)
A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China – and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics.
Fiber optic drones are changing combat operations (youtube.com)
China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order (scmp.com)
A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China – and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics.
China is developing some startling new kit in its quest to invade Taiwan (economist.com)
Is it a barge? Is it a bridge? It is both. Last summer China began building several unusual vessels at its Guangzhou shipyard on the south coast. The barges had legs that could drop down to stabilise the craft in shallow water, and wielded a 100m-bridge that could extend from the bow and onto a beach. In recent weeks pictures have emerged of these mongrel ships (see photo) and of how they connect together into giant causeways.
Low-Cost Drone Add-Ons from China Let Anyone Turn Toys into Weapons of War (wired.com)
Chinese ecommerce giants including Temu and AliExpress sell drone accessories like those used by soldiers in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
JORN Is an Over-the-Horizon Radar (wikipedia.org)
Stanford students want in on the military tech gold rush (sfstandard.com)
A military tech gold rush has changed hearts and minds on campus.
Stanford students used to chase jobs at Meta and Google. Now work on war (sfstandard.com)
A military tech gold rush has changed hearts and minds on campus.
Nomars: No Manning Required Ship (darpa.mil)
The No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program has built a ship designed to operate autonomously for long durations at sea.
The Combined Cipher Machine 1940's-1950's (blogspot.com)
Another machine that became increasingly important for the Allies, in the period 1943-45, was the Combined Cipher Machine - CCM. Unfortunately, this machine has not received a lot of attention from historians because there is limited information available on its internal operation and use in the field.
Drones Now Rule the Battlefield in the Ukraine-Russia War (nytimes.com)
Drones have changed the war in Ukraine, with soldiers adapting off-the-shelf models and swarming the front lines.
A Thousand Snipers in the Sky: The New War in Ukraine (nytimes.com)
The war in Ukraine has changed — and it’s deadlier than ever.
DARPA project reveals one person can control dozens of robots (ieee.org)
A DARPA project overturns longstanding assumptions
Augmented Reality – Turning Soldiers into Superheroes (palmerluckey.com)
As of today, Anduril Industries is taking the reins of the largest project of its kind in history: the United States Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program.
Drones are now launching drones to attack other drones in Ukraine (arstechnica.com)
Under the pressure of war, the pace of innovation is quick.
The WW2 experiment to make pigeon-guided missiles [video] (bbc.com)
During World War Two, psychologist B F Skinner tried to use pigeons to guide missiles towards enemy ships.
Navy Helios Laser Aboard USS Preble Zaps Drone in Latest Test (twz.com)
The Navy has disclosed that the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble successfully test-fired its High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system to take out an aerial target drone in Fiscal Year 2024.
How Russia launched a giant space mirror in 1993 (bbc.com)
It sounds like a scheme a James Bond villain might hatch: launching a giant mirror into orbit to harness the Sun's rays, then redirecting them to beam down on a target on Earth. Yet this was exactly what the Russian space agency Roscosmos attempted to do on 4 February 1993.
Ukraine and Russia Battle to Defeat "Un-Jammable" Fiber-Optic Drones (forbes.com)
In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, innovation in drone and counter-drone technology has become a defining feature of the battlefield.
What China's Next Generation Stealth Jet Reveal Means (twz.com)
Dec. 26, 2024, was a huge day for the global airpower, military technology, and strategy communities. The emergence of not one, but two Chinese advanced tailless tactical combat aircraft sent shockwaves around the globe and garnered very high interest from the public.
Ukrainian-made drones account for 96% of all UAVs for Ukraine's Defence Forces (pravda.com.ua)
In 2024, Ukrainian-made drones accounted for more than 96% of all UAVs used by Ukraine’s Defence Forces.
China's Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet (twz.com)
This is the most advanced flying machine we have seen out of China, lacking any tails and packing stealth and long range.
China Stuns with Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet's Sudden Appearance (twz.com)
In something of a stunning development, China appears to already be flying a stealthy, high-performance sixth-generation crewed combat aircraft, imagery of which began to emerge today.
Ukraine's All-Robot Assault Force Just Won Its First Battle (forbes.com)
A Ukrainian national guard brigade just orchestrated an all-robot combined-arms operation, mixing crawling and flying drones for an assault on Russian positions in Kharkiv Oblast in northern Ukraine.
Ukraine's First All-Robot Assault Force Just Won Its First Battle (forbes.com)
A Ukrainian national guard brigade just orchestrated an all-robot combined-arms operation, mixing crawling and flying drones for an assault on Russian positions in Kharkiv Oblast in northern Ukraine.
How Ukraine tries to change the battlefield with ground drones – DW News [video] (youtube.com)
New US Space Force jammers aim to disrupt China's SATCOM signals (defensenews.com)
The U.S. Space Force is on track to field its first batch of a new ground-based satellite communications jammer in the coming months — designed to disrupt signals from enemy spacecraft.
Ukraine says it has a laser that can shoot down aircraft a mile away (cnn.com)
South Korea deploys Skylight laser weapon to protect Seoul capital from drones (armyrecognition.com)
As reported by Mason on December 8, 2024, South Korea has initiated the deployment of the Laser-Based Anti-Aircraft Weapon Block-I, a stationary 20kW-class fiber laser system capable of neutralizing drones within a range of 2–3 kilometers, to frontline units and selected urban locations, including Seoul.
Will even the most advanced subs have nowhere to hide? (ieee.org)
The scramble to preserve submarine stealth in an age of AI and all-seeing sensors