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In an amazing first, an artillery cannon took out a cruise missile. An M109 Paladin 155 mm howitzer made history recently by shooting down a fast-moving maneuvering cruise missile with a “hypervelocity projectile” able to travel at speeds up to Mach 5, according to an Air Force announcement. Historically, armored vehicles such as tanks, howitzers or infantry carriers have not operated with an ability to destroy fast-moving, long-range cruise missiles, yet the successful demonstration breaks new ground. The shoot-down, which took place at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, destroyed a “surrogate” Russian cruise missile target using the Air Force’s...

The first day of President Trump’s impeachment hearings were bound to be eventful, but no one expected drag queen Pissi Myles to show up on Capitol Hill. Myles is an award-winning New Jersey drag performer, comedy producer and winner of Philly Drag Wars, according to her website. She regularly performs in the NYC area, but on Wednesday she took over Washington in a red dress, matching high heels and a huge blond wig. "It’s a crazy day in Washington! I’m flipping my wig over the high-energy proceedings today," Myles told NBC News. "Tensions are high, and the bar for who’s...

North Korea has test-fired at least one unidentified projectile from a missile base just five days after its first rocket and missile launch since 2017. The projectile was launched from a medium-range ballistic missile base as South Korean, American and Japanese officials meet in Seoul to discuss North Korea amid fears that tensions could escalate again. South Korea's military said the projectile was fired from Sino-ri in an eastwards direction at 4.30pm local time on Thursday.

"(URGENT) N. Korea flies an unidentified projectile across border with S. Korea: military"

Ubiquitous in science fiction, rail guns are a hot area of military research in real life too. But will we ever really get to use them the way people in science fiction do? And could rail guns be used for a non-violent reason — inexpensively launching payload into space? Halo Reach ends with your Spartan taking up a mounted rail gun to destroy an incoming Covenant ship. Rail guns are the basis for a funny aside in Mass Effect 2. They're used in Babylon 5 and Stargate Atlantis and The Last Starfighter. And they're a devastating hand-held weapon in the...

Israel's state-owned Aerospace Industries has briefed Western and other militaries on its TopGun system, designed to convert 155mm artillery shells into precision-guided weapons. "Using our extensive experience in developing missile systems, we took this technological challenge upon ourselves," Uri Sinai, general manager of IAI's MLM division, said. Executives said TopGun was comprised of a fuze that corrected the trajectory of artillery shells. The kit contained global positioning and inertial navigation systems as well as four fins fitted to the fuze. "The accuracy of projectiles equipped with TopGun, which is mounted on the artillery round, is 20 meter CEP [Circular Error...

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...

He's not even President, but Obama's visit to London yesterday was little short of messianic, writes Euan Ferguson He has a devilish, wicked, lopsided little half-smile, does Mr Barack Obama, and the instincts in his face want him to use it. Just as well, really, because it pulls him back into the realm of humanity, and without it we might be in danger of trading hallelujahs and tugging his frayed hem. 'He's not the President,' reprimands the copper keeping crowds at bay outside the House of Commons. 'Yes, he is!' wails a fat white sunburnt American. 'He's my President! Let...

Projectile points look old, old, oldSecond site - Archaeologists suspect fluted obsidian tools date almost to the last ice age Wednesday, September 05, 2007RICHARD L. HILL The Oregonian Staff Archaeologists working in south-central Oregon's sagebrush steppes have found signs of some of the region's earliest inhabitants. Researchers from the University of Oregon and U.S. Bureau of Land Management have uncovered four fluted projectile points and related artifacts at a remote site near Riley. The obsidian points could be 12,000 years old, but the archaeologists are being cautious about giving an exact age until they're able to obtain radiocarbon dates from...

This just in from our N. Korean Correspondent : N. Korean Taepodong 2 Missile Suffers From " Projectile Misfunction " : Fails 45 seconds into Flight Kim Jong II mutters: " This never happened to me before !" July 4 , Pyongyang : In an early morning gesture of friendship toward the United States , Kim Jong II , Fearless Leader of the Extremely Democratic and Nice People's Republic of North Korea launched no less than three "celebratory fireworks displays" , including one that employed the much-heralded Taepodong 2 multi stage rocket. The display started out rather well. Alerted by...

A "smart bullet" that can be fired at a target and then wirelessly transmit back useful information has been developed by US researchers. The projectile, created at the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, is 1.7 centimetres in diameter can be fired at from an ordinary paint-ball gun. The front is coated in an adhesive polymer that sticks it to the target. Inside, the elongated projectile holds a sensor, a tiny wireless transmitter and a battery. This enables it to report back its findings to a laptop or handheld computer up to 70 metres away. It can also reusable, because...

The Admirable Openness of the 9/11 Commission: Why Charges It Is Overly Politicized Are In Error By JOHN W. DEAN Friday, May. 07, 2004 A growing chorus of Republicans and members of the conservative media has charged that the 9/11 Commission has improperly politicized its proceedings, and thus failed before even completing its work. From the floors of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal (which has opposed the Commission's investigation from the outset), there have been calls for resignation of a commissioner, charges of partisanship, and claims of...

Bill Clinton is planning to help the Rolling Stones raise awareness about global warming. According to organisers, Clinton is scheduled to appear at a free Stones concert at Los Angeles' Staples Centre on Thursday. The ex-president, who sported sunglasses and played his sax on The Arsenio Hall Show during a 1992 campaign appearance, is not expected to perform with the band. Instead, he'll make a speech from the stage about the importance of fighting global warming, according to the Natural Resources Defence Council - the nonprofit group staging the gig. A spokesman for NRDC said: "The show was conceived as...

Wife, Mother, Senator, President? Hillary's race for redemptionMany think she'll run for president in 2008 HAVE you met her?" chat-show host Jay Leno asked his guest, Bill O’Reilly, the presenter of his own show on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, a network that takes pride in upsetting America’s liberal consensus. "Never met her," said O’Reilly, as if denying a nasty case of ringworm. "You know what’s interesting?" continued Leno, gamely trying to keep the politics to a minimum. "I’ll tell you something. When you meet her... when you watch Bill Clinton on TV, he’s very photogenic and friendly, and she...