Category: Military

As reported on Businessinsider.com by Geoffrey Ingersoll It’s been 30 years since the Marine Corps fielded a Colt, opting instead for a Springfield manufactured version of the 45 caliber pistol. Starting this year though, Marine special operators are in for a treat. There are orders for 10,000 Colt “M45 Close Quarters Battle Pistols” to replace 4,000 aging M45’s in the Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Marine special operators have been using the M45 since the…

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As reported on Wired. BY SAM LAGRONE The Ohio-class U.S.S. Louisiana. Photo: Navy   The U.S. Navy is betting the future of its submarine force on a secret and revolutionary nuclear drive system that aspires to be more efficient and quieter than anything under the water today. The heart of the planned ballistic missile Ohio Replacement (OR) program will be built around a drive that will not need to be refueled for the 50-year life of the boats and cuts…

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As reported on Wired. BY SPENCER ACKERMAN AND NOAH SHACHTMAN Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, shown here in Afghanistan, doubts that the U.S. can stop Syria’s Bashar Assad from using poison gas. Photo: Defense Department   If Syrian dictator Bashar Assad decides to use his chemical weapons, there won’t be a thing the U.S. military can do to stop him, America’s top military officer conceded on Thursday. Nor will the U.S. step…

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As reported on Wired. BY SPENCER ACKERMAN A U.S. airman greets an MQ-9 Reaper as it returns to Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan from a mission, December 2010. Photo: U.S. Air Force   The sixth U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2013 has killed at least eight people, as if to announce the impending arrival at the CIA of the drone campaign’s chief advocate. About 19 miles east of Mirin Shah, the main city in the tribal…

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As reported on Wired. BY DAVID AXE The Y-20 at Yanliang on Jan. 1. Photo: GeoEye GeoEye 1   A week after the publication of blurry photographs depicting what appears to be China’s first long-range jet transport, Danger Room has obtained satellite imagery of the new plane at an airfield in central China. The images, acquired by the GeoEye 1 and IKONOS spacecraft — both belonging to commercial satellite operator GeoEye headquartered in Washington, D.C. — corroborate the general…

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