News of new developments in the military-industrial complex

On April 17, 2024, the Pentagon announced that the first production model of the M10 Booker light tank, formally designated as a "mobile protected firepower platform" (MPF), had entered the US Army. Deliveries of the new vehicle began with the 82nd Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.

The Economist: a drone with a flight range of up to three thousand km has been created in Ukraine

Kiev has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of UAVs that can detect and hit targets at a range of up to 3 thousand km. This is reported by the British magazine The Economist. How dangerous these drones are, what cities they can reach and how to protect themselves from them - in the material of the military observer of the Newspaper.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.

After years of delay due to COVID-19 and budget issues, the Dragonfly space project has finally been officially approved by NASA. The mission to send a research vehicle to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, will start in 2028. She will become the ideological heir to the Mars Ingenuity Mars project, a new milestone in the use of rotorcraft to explore other worlds.

30 new samples of robotic technology were presented on April 17 at Patriot Park during the visit of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu there. Among them are a medical robotic complex, vehicles, and multi-purpose fire support platforms. The head of the military department instructed to simplify the procedure for accepting promising weapons as much as possible, if they have been tested in a combat zone. In order to facilitate the service of our military and reduce losses, it is necessary to saturate the troops with such equipment, experts say.

It follows from the patent of the United Aircraft Corporation that the air launch UAV will be able to autonomously search and make a decision about hitting a target.

Footage has been published online showing the work of Chinese robot tanks in conjunction with PLA artillery units. In particular, the footage shows the exercises of the artillery brigade of the 77th Army of the Ground Forces of the Western Command of the PLA.

On April 16, 2024, the Turkish manufacturer of Baykar drones announced the start of testing of its latest development in the field of barrage ammunition – the Kemanks 2 product, showing the relevant footage.

The Pentagon's DARPA research agency reported that the X-62A fighter, piloted by artificial intelligence, is successfully conducting simulated air battles with pilot-controlled aircraft. The relevant footage was shown on April 17.

On April 11, 2024, in the boathouse of the Finnish shipbuilding company Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) in Rauma, the official laying ceremony for the Finnish Navy of the new type of lead corvette Pohjanmaa, out of four contracted under the promising Finnish program Laivue 2020 ("Flotilla 2020"), took place. The ceremony of the first steel cutting and the start of construction of the lead corvette took place at RMC on October 30, 2023.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu instructed to simplify the procedure for adopting promising weapons, including robotic systems that have been successfully tested in the zone of special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine, the military department reported on Wednesday.

The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General Sergei Shoigu, checked the implementation of instructions on the development of robotic complexes, advanced weapons systems, as well as providing military personnel.

The Finnish company Patria has started developing its own wheeled self-propelled artillery system (ACS) by integrating the 155 mm gun of the 155 K 98 towed self-propelled howitzer into the base of the Sisu E13TP truck with the 8x8 wheel formula.

The developers have improved the drone detector, which is widely used in the area of its

A new version of the Bulat drone detector is being prepared for mass production, Izvestia found out. It has integrated artificial intelligence, which has been trained to scan more than 150 unique frequency signatures of various UAVs, said the developers of Bulat, a team of 3mx volunteers.

The pro-Iranian Shiite militia Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada operating in Iraq presented footage of a 122-millimeter guided missile in one of its propaganda materials. Such projectiles are manufactured in Iran and are actually guided missiles.

Space power plant projects face a range of engineering challenges. One of them is the transfer of energy collected by solar panels in geostationary orbit to Earth. The British company Space Solar not only offered a concise technical solution, but also successfully tested its reduced prototype.

Engineers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States have proposed a method that will help future colonizers of the Moon and their equipment to withstand dangerous lunar dust. We are talking about an electrodynamic dust shield, somewhat reminiscent of the work of a broom.

Mikhail Kotov — on the reasons for the three attempts and the significance of the new Russian heavy-class launch vehicle

On the eve of Cosmonautics Day, on April 11, the Russian Angara-A5 heavy-class launch vehicle made its first launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome. However, it was possible to realize this only on the third attempt. But the Orion upper stage was put into a reference orbit, then it separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and delivered the Gagarinets small satellite, developed by a private company, to low Earth orbit. After that, a mock-up of the payload was placed into geostationary orbit.

GDELS, the European division of General Dynamics, introduced a heavy version of the Piranha armored personnel carrier, developed in Switzerland in the 1970s and has since undergone several stages of modernization.

A marine drone with American and Soviet parts was found off the coast of Romania

An unusual marine drone was discovered in the Black Sea off the coast of Romania. It combines Soviet and American details.

Unmanned platforms have been developed for Russian sappers for any task

Robotization is becoming the main direction of the development of technology used by sappers — such a conclusion can be drawn following the results of the Day of Innovations of the Engineering Troops, which was held on April 12 at the Karbyshev Military Engineering Academy. At the event, manufacturers presented a wide range of ground-based drones. They should make the work of sappers safer and more efficient, whose profession is considered one of the most dangerous among military specialties. For more information about promising developments in this area, see the Izvestia article.