DARPA
Fighter jets will carry the drones to extend their reach.
Will the drone be carried by other platforms, including bombers and ships?
Fighter jets will carry the drone, which will allow the planes to reach out and touch targets far beyond the range of existing missiles. The prospect of such a drone opens up a world of possibilities, including launching the drone from other military aircraft, ships, and even land.
DARPA awarded Phase I design work contracts for the “Project LongShot” program to General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. LongShot “will increase the survivability of manned platforms by allowing them to be at standoff ranges far away from enemy threats, while an air-launched LongShot UAV efficiently closes the gap to take more effective missile shots,” DARPA said in a press release.
The secret is in tiny localized time variations, possibly caused by neutrinos.
The theory is far out, but the findings will help other scientists.
test a quantum theory that flips our understanding of time on its head.
Physicist Joan Vaccaro first articulated the divisive quantum theory of time that dynamics may be a phenomenological consequence of a fundamental violation of time reversal symmetry, in her words a few years ago. But now, researchers can use neutrinos and antineutrinos to measure the passage of time within a powerful nuclear reactor.
Vaccaro has been open about the theory as a far-out educated guess rather than a sure thing, and the findings should be interesting to other scientists either way.
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The U.S. Navy is studying light aircraft carrier concepts with an eye toward adopting them for the future fleet.
A light aircraft carrier could embark modern combat jets and drones.
The Navy could use the smaller, but more affordable light carriers to both grow the fleet and be in more places at once.
The U.S. Navy is studying adding up to six light aircraft carriers to the fleet of the future. The warships, which would be smaller than existing carriers, are cheaper to operate and could be used in situations that don’t require a $13 billion supercarrier.