Free Republic

One of the more intriguing technologies spotted at this week’s Navy League Sea-Air-Space Expo was General Atomics’ electromagnetic rail cannon. The company has been working for a number of years with the Office of Naval Research on a 200-nautical mile gun system. In a parallel effort, they’ve been developing a smaller, pulse-power technology demonstrator, called the Blitzer, for ship defense against anti-ship cruise missiles and small boat swarms. Two million amps launch a guided projectile at twice the speed of a conventional gun, but at much lower cost than the usual surface-to-air missile systems on most naval ships. General Atomics...

ADELANTO - General Atomics Aeronautical Systems will begin work on its latest unmanned aircraft system under the first $6 million installment of a development contract for the Army. The Warrior is based on the company's Predator unmanned vehicle, a system already proven successful in combat over Afghanistan and Iraq. The entire program, including eventual follow-on production, is worth just under $1 billion, said Kimberly Kasitz , General Atomics spokeswoman. "It's a major contract for us," she said. The new system is expected to replace the Army's existing unmanned reconnaissance system, the Northrop Grumman Co.-built Hunter, which entered service in 1996....