30 May 13. Lucas123 writes “After striking out at getting private investors to fund a new prototype, Safe Gun Technology (SGTi) is hoping it can generate $50,000 through a crowdfunding effort to build an assault-style rifle with fingerprint biometrics technology. Handgun and shotgun prototypes would follow shortly thereafter, the company said. SGTi, which is using the Indiegogo crowdfunding site for its Fund Safe Guns campaign, has so far raised just over $1,600. Several companies are working on developing smart gun technology, which can identify an authorized user through fingerprint, handgrip or RFID recognition
techniques. Last week, a Massachusetts congressman submitted a bill that would require all U.S. handgun manufacturers to include smart gun technology in their weapons.” I’m looking forward to the best car analogy that anyone can come up with on this topic. (Source: Slashdot.com)

03 Jun 13. Lockheed Martin successfully completed MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) “push-through” testing of a simulated Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). Four consecutive tests verified that the simulated LRASM can break or “push through” the MK 41 canister’s forward cover without causing damage to the composite structure, air data probe or coatings of the missile. The testing was part of a Lockheed Martin-funded shipboard integration effort to prove LRASM can successfully function as an Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) weapon. The push-through testing is an important risk reduction milestone critical to demonstrating LRASM’s surface launch capability. LRASM is an autonomous, precision-guided anti-ship standoff missile leveraging the successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters. The push-through testing, as well as a successful missile-to-canister fit check and integrated test of the weapon control system and VLS, significantly reduced risk on the program. Lockheed Martin will fly a Boosted Test Vehicle (BTV) version of LRASM from a MK 41 VLS platform later this year, as well as in two government-funded Controlled Test Vehicle flights in 2014. Armed with a proven penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, LRASM cruises autonomously, day or night, in all weather conditions. The missile employs a multi-modal sensor, weapon data link and an enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of ships. LRASM is in development with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research. Lockheed Martin’s offering has both surface-launched and air-launched variants to prosecute sea-based targets at significant standoff ranges.

07 Jun 13. French Air Force’s Sancerre Squadron evaluates SAMP/T air defence system. The French Air Force’s (ALAT) 2/95 Sancerre Air Defense Squadron (EDSA) has successfully conducted the first operational firing of the Aster sol-air moyenne portée terrestre (SAMP/T) air defence system at the Landes missile test site in Biscarrosse, France. Carried out jointly with Surface-to-Air Engineering Support Squadron 2E950 following a year of preparation, the trial involved implementation of the system’s entire chain of command, including installation of deployable theatre, a detection and control centre (CDC/D) based in Evreux, and an air-defence combat management centre (CMD3D). Leveraging discrimination capabilities of the SAMP/T’s identification friend or foe (IFF) system, the engagement scenario featured two aerial targets replicating a friendly fighter chased by a hostile aircraft at an altitude of 2,000ft and at a speed of 450k. Targets identification and classification responsibility was transferred through a Link 16 datalink from the CDC/D to the CMD3D for firing orders during the multi-system firing trial campaign. The target’s range was 50km at the time of firing, and was intercepted at a range of 40km. Based a