News of new developments in the military-industrial complex

The blessed days of "space racing" are in the past, government funding for new projects outside the Earth is not as generous as before. This forces structures like NASA to take certain adventures, otherwise the Lunar Outpost project will remain just a concept. As part of this program, it is assumed that NASA's knowledge and technology will help private companies establish their colonies, bases, factories and other facilities on the Moon — if they have enough money, of course.

Neither the launch date nor the names and surnames of the participants of the Artemis-2 lunar mission are yet known, and business prospects for the development of our nearest space neighbor are already being discussed with might and main. In particular, Lockheed Martin announced its intentions to become the first company to start making money on the moon.

The SRV-8X Optimus underwater rover is an updated and technologically more advanced version of its predecessor SRV-8, developed by the Austro-German company Oceanbotics.

American military-industrial companies Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Raytheon Intelligence and Space will unite to jointly develop a new E-XX command and control aircraft for the US Navy, which can be used in the event of a nuclear war. The consolidation of the three largest concerns of the American military-industrial complex to create a new "Doomsday aircraft" is reported by the military-analytical publication Defense News.

As reported by the web resource ATO.ru in the article "The project of the American commercial ekranoplan attracted interest and funds from the defense industry. Lockheed Martin invests in the surface glider-ekranoplane with electric motor program," the American developer of ekranoplanes Regent continues to attract investors and customers and enters new market sectors. Lockheed Martin, one of the largest companies in the US defense and aerospace complex, is investing in the development of next-generation ekranoplane technologies. The company's venture fund, Lockheed Martin Ventures (LMV), has announced a strategic investment in Regent, a startup developing a vehicle it calls a "marine glider."

Entrepreneur and owner of Twitter (blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation for refusing to remove extremist content) Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak are among the big names in an open letter signed calling for stopping the deployment of artificial intelligence-based tools such as ChatGPT.

Machine vision is a technology for obtaining images, processing them and using the data obtained to solve various kinds of applied tasks without human intervention. One of the important elements of machine vision devices are photosensitive devices that convert the energy of optical radiation into an electrical signal. The holding company "Roselectronics" of Rostec State Corporation is engaged in the production of such devices. And the technology itself is already being used in full force in the work of the Corporation's enterprises.

Turkey has presented an anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex, which, according to local observers, will surpass the Russian counterpart.

SpaceX announced the launch of a launch vehicle (RN) with a group of satellites as part of the mission of the US Space Force (Space Development Agency). As specified in the American company, it was about 10 communication satellites placed in low orbit.

The production of civilian drones has started in the Rudnevo Industrial Park. This was announced on Friday, March 31, by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

A crucial stage in the development of a multifunctional weapon system for the US Navy

The creation of the Aegis multifunctional weapon system has become a landmark event in the history of the American Navy and has significantly increased their capabilities for the combat use of various types of naval weapons, but primarily anti–aircraft and anti-missile.

Singapore Defense Industry Company Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. On March 27, 2023, ST Engineering announced that its shipbuilding division ST Engineering Marine had received a contract from the Ministry of National Defense of Singapore for the technical design and construction of six promising large multipurpose ships (frigates) for the Singapore Navy under the Multi-Role Combat Vessel (MRCV) program. The commissioning of the lead ship is scheduled for 2028.

On March 29, the official ceremony of launching the lead of 12 minesweepers ordered as part of a project jointly implemented by the Ministry of Defense of Belgium and the Netherlands took place at the shipyard in Concarneau.

The first flight of the heaviest rocket in history is expected in the very near future. Elon Musk recently announced that the tests should be conducted in April. How will the first test launch take place, what does it consist of? Naked Science analyzes in detail the planned flight situations for you.

A month and a half ago, Naked Science wrote that if the preparation of the CST-100 Starliner mission scheduled for April is delayed even a little, the launch will be postponed for several months at once. And so it turned out. In the first half of March, the most important stage was to take place, after which the pre—launch countdown actually begins - refueling the service module with fuel. Until recently, Boeing did not report whether this was done or not, and when the delay became obvious, it explained it with bureaucracy. Moreover, partially shifting the blame to NASA.

Operated by the Naval Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA), the WZ-7 drone was built by Guizhou Aircraft Corporation. His external analysis showed that the initial version of the WZ-7 for the Air Force is similar to the role of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk of the US Air Force, a long-range drone capable of providing reconnaissance, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The UK has conducted two-week tests of the effectiveness of heavy land transport robots, that is, unmanned vehicles that are designed to perform various tasks on the battlefield. This is reported in a special statement on the website of the Government of the United Kingdom.

The next flight tests of weapons for attack drones have been carried out in Turkey. This time we are talking about the supersonic air-based missile IHA-230. It was launched from the Bayraktar AKINCI TIHA high-altitude attack drone.

In the USA, they reported on the tests of a hypersonic missile. The flight was unsuccessful. Americans have not been able to create their own "new generation weapons" for more than two decades. About the main difficulties — in the material of RIA Novosti.

On March 27, 2023, the Finnish arms company Sako Oy (part of the Beretta Holding Group) announced that it had signed a framework agreement with the armed forces of Finland and Sweden on the joint production of new-generation small arms at the Sako plant in Riihimaki. This agreement includes automatic rifles and automatic carbines for NATO cartridges of 5.56 x 45 mm and 7.62 x 51 mm and sniper rifles for cartridges of 7.62 x 51 mm and .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6 mm).