Why Bitcoin is overrated for terrorist finance

For this article, cryptocurrencies will generally be referred to as Bitcoin to avoid confusion. Introduction Bitcoin was supposed to change the world of finance. Created by the reclusive and possibly imaginary Satoshi Nakamoto, it offered a purely digital currency that all of the people loved. Libertarians championed its unregulated free market aspect. Anarchists liked that […]

The truth about artificial intelligence (isn’t all that scary)

As is so often the case in our modern buzzword culture, the phrase artificial intelligence has grown well beyond the confines of what it is, and is instead often thought of in terms of what it could be. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining a healthy sense of a technology’s potentially dark extremes, but many experts […]

Five US military aircraft already being developed for future wars

The United States has spent years touting the Lockheed Martin sourced F-35 as the most advanced combat aircraft ever devised — which resulted in some ruffled feathers when Lockheed pitched an F-35/F-22 hybrid fighter it claimed would be superior to the incredibly expensive (and perpetually troubled) F-35 program. The thing is, despite being chock-full of […]

Lockheed Martin awarded $928 million to help US catch up in hypersonic missile race

Every so often, a new kind of weapon comes along that fundamentally shifts the way humans conduct warfare: bows extended the range of the battlefield, airplanes created air support, and the atomic bomb made “total war” too terrible to conduct with the regularity of conventional warfare. Increasingly, hypersonic missile platforms are beginning to look like […]

SOCOM needs Google’s artificial intelligence — here’s why

Earlier this month, Google employees made a stir in Silicon Valley when a number of them chose to resign from their positions in protest after their company agreed to work with the Defense Department on a new artificial intelligence initiative. Overwhelmingly, the media presented this gesture as an ethical stand — with tech professionals doing […]

Boeing has plans to turn the B-1B into a gun ship, but is it a flight of fancy?

On May 8th of this year, Boeing was granted a patent that shows a number of potential cannon configurations for legendary supersonic bomber, the B-1B Lancer. The patent’s details range from conformal pods that house turrets to a suspension system that would allow massive cannons to be lowered from the bomber’s payload doors. While the […]

Los Angeles to New York in Three Hours? NASA Thinks So!

Flying from LA to New York in about three hours is something NASA hopes to make a reality with their quiet ‘low boom’ supersonic technology. The agency will be conducting a series of flights in November off the shores of Galveston, Texas, an island city outside of Houston. It’s a test to determine how to best […]

Lockheed Martin unveils stealthy, offensive variants for their tanker drone

As the competition for the Navy’s MQ-25 tanker drone heats up between Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, it would seem at least two of the contenders believe the decision could come down to which platform offers the most versatility beyond the contract’s requirements. Last week, SOFREP reported on Boeing’s decision to base their MQ-25 […]