Thales unveils new HD zoom lens for security cameras
Paris (UPI) Nov 19, 2015 -
Thales Group unveiled a new security and surveillance camera lens the company says can match military capabilities.
The 10x20 high-definition zoom lens is capable of detecting an individual at a distance of 6 kilometers, with possible recognition at 2 kilometers and identification capabilities at a distance of 1 kilometer. The zoom lens is built to capture sharp images day or night at v ...
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USS Truman first carrier to install Afloat Fab Lab
Norfolk, Va. (UPI) Nov 19, 2015 -
The U.S. Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Truman became the first carrier to install a miniature Fabrication Laboratory.
A Fabrication Laboratory, or Fab Lab, is a small-scale technical workshop comprised of off-the-shelf, industrial-grade fabrication and electronics tools, including 3-D printing technology. Navy officials say the workshop will help sailors become more innovativ ...
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White House tells Pentagon to revise Guantanamo report
Washington (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
The White House has asked the Pentagon to revise a report on how the military would close Guantanamo Bay and transfer inmates to the United States, a US official said Thursday.
Military officials last week said the controversial prison's closure plan would be published "soon," but the White House was unhappy with the document and told the Pentagon to find more ways of lowering costs.
"Th ...
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U.K. awards BAE Systems contract for Astute-class submarine
Washington (UPI) Nov 19, 2015 -
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has awarded BAE Systems a $1.98 billion contract to deliver the fifth Astute-class attack submarine.
The contract covers both design and manufacturing for Anson, the fifth of seven planned Astute-class submarines. Work on Anson began in 2010, and is now at an advanced phase of construction. The company expects the attack submarine to begin sea trials in 2020 ...
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XCOR develops Lynx Simulator
Mojave CA (SPX) Nov 18, 2015 -
XCOR Aerospace has announced that it has completed work on its Lynx simulator system, built by Protobox LLC in conjunction with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. This simulator will provide XCOR invaluable training as the test pilot team prepares for Lynx flight test.
"Dedicated aerodynamic modeling of the vehicle in the LAMARS (Large Amp ...
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Sale of Harpoon missiles to South Korea in the works
Washington (UPI) Nov 18, 2015 -
South Korea has requested a U.S. Foreign Military Sales deal for UGM-84L Harpoon Block II missiles and Harpoon Block II missile kits.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which manages the FMS program, said in its notification to Congress that the proposed package carries an estimated value of $110 million and has already been approved by the U.S. State Department.
The U ...
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Hundreds of TOW missiles tipped for sale to Morocco
Washington (UPI) Nov 19, 2015 -
Hundreds of TOW 2A missiles and their launchers have been approved for sale to Morocco by The U.S. State Department.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which notified Congress of the possible Foreign Military Sales deal, said the proposed package for tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided 2A radio frequency weapons has an estimated value of $157 million.
"Th ...
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Encryption firm tightens access following Paris attacks
Washington (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
The encrypted communications firm Silent Circle said Thursday it was tightening access to its mobile apps and secure smartphone to make them harder for terrorists and criminals to use.
The company which makes the encrypted Blackphone handset and Silent Phone applications for private messaging said it took the steps after learning that it had been recommended by the Islamic State group which ...
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Russia, China agree $2 bln deal for 24 Su-35 warplanes: state firm
Moscow (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
Russia and China have agreed on the sale of 24 advanced Sukhoi Su-35 fighters to Beijing, the Russian state holding Rostec said on Thursday.
The deal - which military experts say could be worth more than $2 billion (1.87 billion euros) - represents the first time a foreign state has purchased the Su-35.
A representative of Rostec, speaking to AFP, confirmed a deal had been reached but ...
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Patriot takes out two ballistic missiles in latest test
Washington (UPI) Nov 19, 2015 -
The U.S. Army completed its first in a series of tests on the Raytheon-built Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense system.
The flight test, which saw the missile defense system take out two ballistic missiles, followed several upgrades known as Post-Deployment Build 8 (PDB-8), which enhanced the system's ability to intercept threats and better differentiate between friendly and ene ...
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Protests, South China Sea tensions at Asia-Pacific summit
Manila (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
Police and protesters clashed Thursday outside a gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders who were meeting for a summit dominated by a US-China tussle for regional influence.
The annual 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering - hosted this year by the Philippines - is meant to forge trade unity but often finds itself sidetracked by other events.
This week US President Bar ...
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Navy starts pre-Milestone C tests on MQ-4C Triton UAS
Patuxent River, Md. (UPI) Nov 19, 2015 -
The U.S. Navy has begun operational assessment trials of Northrop Grumman's MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system.
The trials will be used to support the Navy's MQ-4 Milestone C review and entry into low-rate initial production.
The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command said the operational assessment will take place over two months. The Triton UAS will conduct six flights and execute v ...
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Former operators speak out about US drone killings
Washington (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
America's use of drones to kill suspected jihadists around the world is driving hatred toward the United States and causing further radicalization, four former airmen have said.
In an open letter to President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and CIA Director John Brennan, the four former drone operators said they were involved in the killing of innocent civilians, and had gone o ...
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HRW urges halt to US bomb sales to Saudi over Yemen
Dubai (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
Human Rights Watch has urged the US Congress to block the sale of aerial bombs to Saudi Arabia, warning their likely use in Yemen risked more civilian deaths.
The kingdom has led a bombing campaign in its southern neighbour since March, carrying out hundreds of strikes against Iran-backed rebels who had overran much of the country.
Despite widespread criticism of the high civilian death ...
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Iran says 'path clear' for nuclear deal implementation
Tehran (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
Iran's atomic agency chief said Thursday the path was clear for final implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers after "guarantees" were received on the redesign of a controversial reactor.
Ali Akbar Salehi's remarks came a day after UN inspectors reported that Iran had started to dismantle parts of its nuclear programme in compliance with the agreement struck in July with the United ...
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Russia military chief discusses Syria 'coordination' with French counterpart
Moscow (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
Russia's chief of general staff held talks with his French counterpart on Thursday on combating the Islamic State group in Syria, in the first such contact since the start of the Ukraine conflict last year.
Valery Gerasimov and Pierre de Villiers "discussed on the phone the coordination of military troops' actions against IS terrorists in Syria," the Russian defence ministry said in a statem ...
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IS becoming urban guerrilla threat, needs 20 times more air strikes: expert
Paris (AFP) Nov 19, 2015 -
The West must ramp up air strikes by 10 to 20 times to have any hope of disrupting the Islamic State group, which risks turning Europe into an urban guerrilla warzone, warned one of the world's leading counter-terrorism experts.
David Kilcullen, an Australian army veteran, became the senior counter-insurgency advisor to US General David Petraeus during the Iraq War and is considered a key ar ...
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Study finds High Plains Aquifer peak use by state, overall usage decline
Manhattan KS (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
A new Kansas State University study finds that the over-tapping of the High Plains Aquifer's groundwater beyond the aquifer's recharge rate peaked in 2006. Its use is projected to decrease by roughly 50 percent in the next 100 years.
David Steward, professor of civil engineering, and Andrew Allen, civil engineering doctoral student, Manhattan, published those findings in the recent Agricul ...
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Study is first to map Earth's hidden groundwater
Victoria, Canada (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
Groundwater: it's one of the planet's most exploited, most precious natural resources. It ranges in age from months to millions of years old. Around the world, there's increasing demand to know how much we have and how long before it's tapped out.
For the first time since a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the global volume of groundwater was attempted in the 1970s, an international gro ...
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Shocking new way to get the salt out
Boston MA (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
As the availability of clean, potable water becomes an increasingly urgent issue in many parts of the world, researchers are searching for new ways to treat salty, brackish or contaminated water to make it usable. Now a team at MIT has come up with an innovative approach that, unlike most traditional desalination systems, does not separate ions or water molecules with filters, which can become c ...
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Ancient mass extinction led to dominance of tiny fish
Philadelphia PA (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
When times are good, it pays to be the big fish in the sea; in the aftermath of disaster, however, smaller is better. According to new research led by the University of Pennsylvania's Lauren Sallan, a mass extinction 359 million years ago known as the Hangenberg event triggered a drastic and lasting transformation of Earth's vertebrate community.
Beforehand, large creatures were the norm, ...
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Researchers sequence genomes of parasite that is actually a 'micro jellyfish'
Lawrence KS (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
It's a shocking discovery that may redefine how scientists interpret what it means to be an animal. This week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Kansas will reveal how a jellyfish - those commonplace sea pests with stinging tentacles - have evolved over time into "really weird" microscopic organisms, made of only a few cells, that live inside ...
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Earth's climate more sensitive to CO2 than previously thought
Binghamton NY (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
Ancient climates on Earth may have been more sensitive to carbon dioxide than was previously thought, according to new research from Binghamton University. A team of Binghamton University researchers including geology PhD student Elliot A. Jagniecki and professors Tim Lowenstein, David Jenkins and Robert Demicco examined nahcolite crystals found in Colorado's Green River Formation, formed 50 mil ...
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Scientists fill in the gaps of human hunter-gatherer history
Dublin, Ireland (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
An international team led by scientists in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and Cambridge University, has, for the first time, sequenced ancient genomes from the Late Upper Palaeolithic period. In doing so, the team has discovered a new strand of European hunter-gatherer ancestry.
Where human genomes are concerned the past is indeed a different country. Most modern populat ...
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Going native - for the soil
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 20, 2015 -
Prairie gardens offer Midwestern suburban dwellers an alternative option to the traditional grass lawn. Their combination of native grasses, like tall and wispy bluestem and sideoats, and forbs, such as the colorful yellow and purple coneflowers, are a welcome addition to any lawn.
They also attract beneficial bees and other insects, as well as beautiful butterflies. The prairie plants are ...
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