Engineers at Ohio State University are using zirconium dioxide otherwise known as fake/synthetic diamonds, to protect jet engines from high temperature corrosion.

The zirconium dioxide coating has proved to comprise of better protective properties than standard ceramic coating that is currently applied to the fan blades of modern aircraft engines.

The ceramic coating provides adequate protection but when it comes to grains of sand, it becomes a different matter.

The ceramic coating expands with the hot engine blades offering continual protection. But grains of sand that may be sucked up into the engine melt in these high temperatures to form glass.

The glass can break down the ceramic coating when hot and when cooled, it forms an inelastic layer on top of the protective coating. The next time the engine gets hot, the new glass layer restricts the ceramic layer from expanding causing the protective coating to crack and break off.

This process greatly reduces the life expectancy of the engine.

Zirconium on the other hand is able to force the glass to bond with the other elements in the protective coating.

This basically turns the glass layer into an additional layer of protective ceramic every time sand melts in the engine.

The picture above shows the ceramic coating which is easily damaged on the left, and the zirconium coating on the left which provides protection from the molten glass.

Unfortunately the zirconium application doesn’t come cheap and is yet to be tested on more complex shapes.

However it does promise a great solution for efficiency not just in aircraft but possibly for automobiles too.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute scandal is still big news in New York. In February earlier this year, the former Governor was caught in a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel.

The story quickly swept the tabloids, all of who soaked up Spitzer’s downfall with little mention of how and why his crimes actually came to light.

Spitzer was originally flagged when a series of Suspicious Activity Reports - reports that banks must to file with the Treasury to assist in investigating anything from money laundering to terrorist activity were submitted.

The prostitution ring that counted Spitzer as a customer had been responsible for shady bank accounts, checks and wire transfers of up to $400,000, they soon became under-investigation.

According to the FBI’s complaint:

“In or about October 2007, the FBI and the United States Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigative Division (IRS-CID) began an investigation focusing on an organization suspected of conducting prostitution and money-laundering crimes in the United States and Europe.”

The investigation began with a suspicious activity report on Spitzer. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spitzer’s transactions were regular and always kept under $10,000. A pattern that the Feds class as suspicious.

“There has been a massive federal crackdown on money laundering in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and banks have been extremely diligent in filing such reports. Those reports often include details of transactions done by innocent people.”

According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) there have been 4.7 million SARs filed as of June 30, 2007.

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There is no doubt about it, guided ammunitions are changing the way we fight wars. In the days of the Vietnam War, guided ammunitions had already been developed however dumb or iron bombs were still largely in use. These days many munitions have guidance systems ranging from lasers to GPS, some of these systems are even being fitted to unmanned vehicles to enable a totally autonomous attack.

Dumb bombs are what most people imagine when they think of a bomb. There is no way to control the bomb once it has been deployed, they simply fall to the ground and explode, hence the name. Needless to say hitting a target with a dumb bomb is an extremely difficult task and innocent bystanders are often caught up in the carpet bombing technique which is employed.Smart bombs are designed to guide themselves to the target. The concept of this smart weapon is certainly not new. First developed back in 1943 by the Germans, the technology would go through stages of radio-controlled and laser-guided developments before being used on a large scale. The first large-scale use of smart weapons came in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm when they were used by coalition forces against Iraq.

More Information On The Air Force’s Newest Smart bomb Plus Two Videos After The Jump.

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Pioneers in military technology DARPA - The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - have just unveiled a six-wheeled autonomous robot that is capable of maneuvering through ditches, walls, streams and even other vehicles whilst raining down a hail of bullets against its enemies.

The Crusher - developed at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute - weighs nearly 7 tons, has a top speed of about 25 mph and is designed to be totally autonomous; it doesn’t even require a remote driver to control the robot, although this is an option if necessary.

Check out this first video of the Crusher Climbing a 4 foot wall.

The robot is armed with a large caliber gun, long range cameras that can spot enemy targets up to two and half miles away, as well as GPS sensors and internal maps to plot out its route. The Crusher can roll through just about anything that gets in its way, deviating from the most direct route only when faced with obstacles over six feet tall or deep.

Another two videos and more info after the jump

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The Pain Ray or Active Denial System (ADS) is a long standing joint project between the Air Force and the Pentagons Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. The ABS non-lethal weapon consists of a real life ray gun which shoots 95 GHz millimeter waves that penetrate the skin at a 64th of an inch beneath the skin. This causes the water molecules to boil where the nerve receptors are most concentrated and of course, this hurts like hell.

A press release by Sandia National Laboratories explains that when the waves hit,

“[They produce an] intense heating sensation [which] stops only if the individual moves out of the beam’s path or the beam is turned off……..
“The sensation caused by the system has been described by test subjects as feeling like touching a hot frying pan.”

Another Demonstration Video And More Info After The Jump >>>

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Battlefield robots have been in use for a while now proving their worth in many situations. But no matter how good they may perform it will never stop researchers looking for new ways to improve the robots for optimal use on the battlefield.

The HARV - Head-Aimed Remote Viewer - is a new development by Chatten Associates which promises to do just that, claiming to improve mission performance by 300% to 400%.Check Out The Video After The Jump

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The Pentagon announced last Thursday that a Navy warship has been tasked with shooting down a failing United States spy satellite that is expected to hit Earth within weeks.

In a joint news conference, NASA administrator Michael Griffin and Gen. James Cartwright, the No. 2 officer at the Defense Department, told reporters that an SM-3 missile – originally designed to inbound ballistic missiles - will be fired from a Navy cruiser during the next month to obliterate the inbound spacecraft.

The idea is to break apart the satellite to rid it of toxic fuels which are stored in its tank.The USS Shiloh will be one of three warships that will use the system to target the defunct satellite. Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, did not say when the attempted interception would be conducted, but the satellite is expected to hit Earth somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during the first week of March.

Although Cartwright would not comment on the odds of success it is true that several successful anti-ballistic mile tests have been already conducted from the cruisers, most frequently from the USS Shiloh, but no test has the urgency or high profile as the impending satellite shoot-down.

The Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) can target an object as high as 310 miles when fired vertically. After the third stage of the rocket is spent, the kill vehicle finds the satellite with infrared sensors and then steers towards the target.

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Corner shot is a high-tech weapon support system that provides the ability to observe, acquire and engage targets from “around the corner”.

Designed to enable military, law enforcement and security operators to effectively observe and engage targets without being exposed, Corner Shot consists of a segmented, assault rifle-type folding stock - complete with a high-resolution video camera and color display - onto which a pistol of choice can be attached. A lateral left and right swinging hinge mechanism and a remote trigger control allow the user to squeeze the trigger from behind the safety and comfort of any suitable structure

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The Navy is hoping that their latest project, a 10 megajoule railgun, will replace the standard 5-inch guns on most of their ships. Currently in testing phase, this awesome weapon uses a magnetic field to fire projectiles at a speed of approx 5,600 mph. But the Navy is not stopping there; they hope to create a 64 megajoule system capable of shooting at over 13,000 mph and hitting 5 meter targets from 200 nautical miles.

Check out two videos of the Railgun in action after the jump>>

“If you’ve got a little over 10 megajoules as with this demonstration model, you’re looking at 5,600 mph. When the system is completed, it’ll be firing shells with over six times that energy (well over 13,000 mph) using 64 megajoules of energy”

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Lobster Vision is the forefront of a new technology being developed for Home Security by Physical Optics Corporation of Torrance, California.

The handheld device prototype called the LEXID (Lobster Eye X-ray Imaging Device) is based on the lobster’s ability to see through the dark murky waters of the deep sea and may help security officers see through wood, concrete and steal.

Rick Shie, senior vice president at Physical Optics Corporation said that the patented device, which radiates objects with tiny amounts of X-ray energy,

“Is modeled exactly after the lobster living in the deepest, darkest part of the ocean,”

A lobster’s eyes are made up of thousands of tiny square channels that focus by reflection, rather than by refraction (or the bending of light) as human eyes do.

This unique optical geometric design, which allows lobsters to see in the dimmest light, is being adapted into a “lobster-eye lens” that focuses the X-ray images so that the device can actually see through solid objects.

The Californian Company are still in the early stages of development however She says his company hopes to have the device perfected within a year so that Homeland Security agents can test it on the job.

A team of Hungarian engineers have created jet powered fire extinguisher. The team of crazy engineers removed the gun turrets from an old Russian tank, replaced them with 2 turbines from a MIG-21 fighter jet and injected the whole thing with gallons of water. The result is the ultimate jet powered fire extinguisher. Whilst this may not be practical for most residential fires (imagine not only putting out the fire but blasting your whole home to smithereens) it will certainly help with large oil blazes that typically last for days. The concept is somewhat old and used in Australia mines and even back in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. However, this is a more powerful and effective system. It was originally known as the “The Great Wind” for obvious reasons.

This 360-degree ultra-high-definition military simulator allows you to drive a Humvee and fire real weapons including machine guns and rocket launchers, anywhere you want, with absolute precision.

The 10-projector system achieves a seamless panorama thanks to Mersive’s Sol system; a calibration, warping and sub-pixel image blending technology that may soon be adapted from military sims to your living room gaming.

Watch The Video and check the Halo 3-like scenario

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New high speed digital video camcorders are capturing speed and giving scientist a new perspective in time, speed and motion.

With the rapid growth in small electronic devices such as mobile phones that are required to work both indoors and outdoors, the risk of water ingress and damage to these high value items has grown enormously. Now a new military technology may be able to protect these valuable electronics from the risk of water damage.

Ion-mask, as the product is known is being developed by a company called Hi Tec and is able to modify the surface of virtually any material, applying a protective layer, just nanometers thick, over the surface of the object by means of an ionized gas or “plasma”.Ion-Mask works at a molecular level, binding invisibly to the surfaces of products, giving them an extraordinary ability to repel most liquids. Ion-Mask is transparent and invisible to the naked eye and the treatment not only coats the external surfaces but also the inside without damaging precision circuitry.

The technology was originally developed to protect soldiers from chemical attacks but is beginning to show its many uses. Apart from increasing the protection of smaller items, ion-mask can also be used to ensure that larger, more complex items are given an additional level of protection.

In late September 2007, Boeing successfully tested a 1kw solid state laser weapon mounted on a converted Avenger anti aircraft vehicle in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The Avengers laser was able to successfully destroy several unexploded mortar shells and two unmanned aerial vehicles, both of which were on the ground.

Until recently, military lasers were extremely big. Powerful lasers such as Boeing’s Airborne Laser (ABL) developed in order to destroy ballistic missiles in flight from a distance of hundreds of miles were so big they required a fully modified Boeing 747-400F to house the system. Thanks to new developments in solid state laser technology, the Avenger system is more compact than any previous military lasers.

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