Lifeboat Foundation

The U.S. Space Force has a mini-fleet of two robotic X-37B space planes, which have been flying secret missions since 2010.

The most recent mission, called OTV-6, launched in May 2020 and is ongoing. As that name suggests, it’s the sixth flight for the robotic X-37B, which is also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). The other five OTV missions launched in April 2010, March 2011, December 2012, May 2015 and September 2017.

We’ve assembled 10 surprising facts about the military space plane for you. Just click the arrows to launch to the next page and enjoy.

Continue reading “The US Space Force’s secretive X-37B space plane: 10 surprising facts” »

With 3,774 days in space under its belt, the solar-powered X-37B has already traveled more than 1.3 billion miles.

After a record-breaking 908 days in orbit for its sixth mission, a U.S. military drone touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, early on Saturday.

“Since the X-37B’s first launch in 2010, it has shattered records and provided our nation with an unrivaled capability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,” stated Jim Chilton, a senior vice president for Boeing, its developer.

Continue reading “US military drone lands safely after spending record-breaking 908 days in space” »

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — An unmanned U.S. military space plane landed early Saturday after spending a record 908 days in orbit for its sixth mission and conducting science experiments.

The solar-powered vehicle, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Its previous mission lasted 780 days.

Continue reading “Unmanned, solar-powered US space plane back after 908 days” »

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming all sectors of our society. Whether we realize it or not, every time we do a Google search or ask Siri a question, we’re using AI.

For better or worse, the same is true about the very character of warfare. This is the reason why the Department of Defense – like its counterparts in China and Russia– is investing billions of dollars to develop and integrate AI into defense systems. It’s also the reason why DoD is now embracing initiatives that envision future technologies, including the next phase of AI – artificial general intelligence.

AGI is the ability of an intelligent agent to understand or learn any intellectual task in the same way that humans do. Unlike AI which relies on ever-expanding datasets to perform more complex tasks, AGI will exhibit the same attributes as those associated with the human brain, including common sense, background knowledge, transfer learning, abstraction, and causality. Of particular interest is the human ability to generalize from scanty or incomplete input.

Iran’s priority in entering the Ukrainian war arena was to test NATO’s defenses against its drones, to assess the strength of these defenses in the face of Iranian offensive capabilities. It can be said that in the initial stages, the Shahed-136 drone actually managed to achieve exceptional success against NATO air defense employed by the Ukrainian army. This marks a victory for Tehran.

However, the ultimate evaluation of the Shahed-136 drone’s capability against NATO defenses will have to wait until NATO supplies Ukraine with more air defenses in the days ahead. The implications of these advances for the balance of power between Russian and Ukrainian forces, as well as the reputation of the types of weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military, were certainly realized by NATO’s leadership in the wake of these drone attacks. NATO swiftly rushed to implement additional air defense systems designed to deal with such small, drones that are capable of flying at low altitudes.

Continue reading “Iran‘s Combat Drones in Ukraine War, a New Market” »

I’ve funded Ukraine media, the Ukraine army, and now I just funded the Ukraine navy. The navy part is extra interesting because it is “the world’s first naval fleet of drones”. That is pretty futuristic!

As Elon Musk said, “Future wars are all about the drones.”

Small and fast unmanned ships 3 russian vessels were damaged, including the Admiral Makarov, flagship of the russian Black Sea Fleet. This is the first case in history where the attack was carried out exclusively by unmanned vessels.

Continue reading “The Naval Fleet of Drones” »

The US observed Russian naval vessels preparing for a possible test of a new nuclear-powered torpedo in recent weeks, a senior US official with direct knowledge told CNN.

Among the vessels which took part in the preparations was the Belgorod, a cruise missile submarine modified for special operations that is able to launch unmanned underwater vehicles including the Poseidon torpedo.

In the last week, the vessels were observed leaving the testing area in the Arctic Sea and heading back to port without carrying out a test. The US believes the Russians may have encountered technical difficulties.

Ukraine’s president says he wants to start raising funds to buy “a whole fleet of sea drones.” Kyiv used sea drones to attack the Russian Black Sea fleet in the end of October, and according to the Ukrainian military, they hit three Russian warships.

Meanwhile, for weeks now the Russian military has been flying explosive-laden “Iranian drones” into critical Ukrainian infrastructure facilities and residential areas. Although British intelligence says most of the drones are now intercepted by air defenses, a third still reach their targets. Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said the Russians use “20 to 30 Iranian ‘kamikaze’ drones’” every day.

Continue reading “‘Drone warfare’ a game changer in Ukraine? I DW News” »

IBM has unveiled ‘Osprey’, the successor to its Eagle system, featuring the highest ever qubit count for a quantum processor.