The LCAC, short for Landing Craft Air-Cushioned, is the beastly hovercraft used by the United States Marine Corps.  This ship is designed to transport supplies, vehicles, and troops to the shore from a Wasp class assault ship or other dock-landing/amphibious cargo ships participating in an amphibious assault.  These huge hovercraft can travel at up to 40 knots (46 mph), and have 2 machine gun emplacements and additionaly weapon mounts that can support additional machine guns or 40 mm grenade launchers.  There really isn’t a huge demand for armaments on this ship, as it will hit the shores after the

For all those military buffs out there, wink wink, I would like to take a moment to commend one of the greatest programming achievements in the history of television. The Discovery Communications company, the parent of the Military Channel, converted the older Discovery Wings channel into the Military Channel in July of 1998, and has rapidly increased it’s program listing since then. If you like what you see here on Future Firepower, definitely take the time to check out some of the awesome shows they have on the Military Channel. Just to name a few of the…

Manufacturer: Northrop Grumman [NYSE: NOC]
Sometimes I have trouble controlling myself when it comes to some of this stuff. I have seen it before on TV, but just simply haven’t gotten around to writing about it. I’m talking about the awe-inspiring Fire Scout UAV helicopter. A remote control helicopter capable of autonomous take-off, landing, and flight, it really just makes me giddy. Not to mention that this death machine’s release was coupled with an upgrade to the Hydra 70 rockets typically fired from the rocket pods mounted on Ah-64 Apaches. Now they’re laser-guided. …

In recent days, the Bush Administration has revealed that it has began to draw up plans to bomb Iran. With a target list of up to 1200 facilities, the Pentagon estimates that it would take around 3 days of continuous day and night bombing raids to accomplish the task. The raids though, are not intended to solely focus on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Iranian military must go too. This hard decision was made because, not so ironically, of the US presence in Iraq. With American bombs falling every minute across the…

On NPR recently there was a piece about the propaganda war taking place as a part of the War on Terror. The focus was on how NPRs correspondent believes that the US is losing the media War on Terror, but that new efforts are being made by the US military to counter this phenomenon. Official spokesmen for the military are paid daily to surf the net for subversive remarks about the United States and the West and to reply to these posts in-kind, educating those that are ignorant, misled, radical, or just plain wrong about the US’s view…

The Objective Crew Served Weapon (OCSW) is an integrated machine gun system which couples the firepower of air bursting munitions with optoelectronic fire control to provide all-environment operation and enhanced lethality. (FAS)

This incredible machine gun system is capable of dismantling slow moving aircraft and light armored vehicles from over 1000 meters away while incapacitating enemy soldiers from over 2000 meters. The objective crew served weapon is an ultra light 2 man crew served weapon that will replace the MK19 grenade machine gun and the M2.

See a video of the OSCW in Action at another post.

Click any Picture for a larger image

YAL-1A Airborne Laser

The Airborne Laser is without a doubt a revolutionary weapon that will change the way battles are fought and Nations are protected. The proliferation of ballistic weapons systems has prompted military officials to persue an airborne weapons system capable of defeating ballistic missiles long before they become a threat to their intended target. The YAL-1A Airborne laser (ABL) comes in the form of a Boeing 747-400F and uses infrared to detect threats while using a directive energy weapon to explode the…

Testing has Begun on the New (BA) X-45b which is sure to be the next generation of UAV technology. Development is under way for systems that will help the Boeing Phantom Works unmanned aerial vehicle acquire and track targets on its own. This truly is an awesome looking machine and sure to be the Future of unmanned Aeriel technology.

Global Security has a great article with a detailed review of this aircraft that is said to be “generations ahead of its time”.

The US has announced military aid worth more than $43bn to Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in an effort to boost its Middle East allies against Iran. Egypt will receive $13bn in aid over 10 years while $30bn will go to Israel over the same period, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said on Monday.

She also said that an unspecified defence aid package was allocated for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

The Saudi package is expected to upgrade the country’s missile defences and air force and increase its naval capabilities, a defence official said on Saturday.

Saudi…

So basically the Transformers movie is pretty bad ass, and it also is like a 2.5 hour commercial for the US Military. Not like there’s anything wrong with that, but the media has, since even before the release of the movie, been debating the pros and cons of the heavily laden promotional content paid for by either US defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT], General Dynamics [NYSE: GD], Boeing Co. [NYSE: BA], and Force Protection Inc. [NYSE: FRPT] or even simply the US Armed Forces themselves. I believe that there is one very notable point…