Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)

The Viper is a standoff munition guided by GPS and laser-guidance. The Viper is primarily used in missions that require a flexible angle of attack, either steep or shallow. The weapon is produced by Northrop Grumann’s Land Combat Systems Facility in Alabama. This particular Viper Standoff munition requires a man to lase the target either from the UAV itself where the missile is fired from, or from the ground. The Viper is similar to the Hellfire missile used in the Predator UAV by the US air-force. The Vipers warhead is smaller than the…

A technology that will increase the Navy’s capable strike distance by ten fold is on the way. Proposed in the 1970’s under the “star wars” Strategic Defense Initiative, railguns are no longer a thing of the past or just an idea on the drawing boards. The United States Office of Naval Research has successfully fired a Railgun and has plans to incorporate the technology into Naval Ships by the year 2020. The main idea in developing the Railgun is to overcome the limitations of chemical projectiles. The Railgun will deliver projectiles to its intended target much…

Imagine having the ability to strike anywhere in the world within one hour. The X-51 is an amazing hypersonic cruise missile that travels 600 miles in just ten minutes (approximately 3600 MPH or Mach 5).

Compared with the Tomahawk Missile which travels at a mere 550 MPH, the X51 gives the US the ability to strike enemies quickly before they can evade. As U.S. Strategic Command’s deputy commander Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler puts it, the goal of the X51 is “to strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes.”

The power of this weapon…

Manufacturers: Raytheon [NYSE: RTN] and General Dynamics [NYSE: GD]

The Excalibur is the newest development in Military artillery technology and precision guided munitions. Also known as the M982 ER DPICM (Extended Range Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions) Projectile, the Excallibur is a smart artillery round that has an integrated GPS tracking system along with fins and rockets that give it accuracy and range that has never been attainable with other artillery shells. The artillery round can travel over 25 miles and still hit a target 10 meters wide! The Excalibur artillery shell can deliver a…

Manufacturer: Textron Inc. [NYSE: TXT]

The CBU-97 sensor-fuzed weapon is an extremely potent anti-armor cluster bomb. It combines so many different technologies of lethality and has so many moving parts for a bomb that initial observes questioned whether it would even work. Basically, the CBU-97 is dropped over a column of enemy armor, the bomb “clusters” and releases it’s sub-munitions, which are like smaller little bombs themselves. Each sub-munition is slowed by a parachute, and then each sub-munition fires 4 hockey puck sized “skeets” over the target area. The skeets contain an infrared targeting…

This video depicts the teamwork capability of the US military, coupled with today’s advanced weapon technology. The video is filmed by a Predator UAV on surveillance patrol in Iraq. The Predator observes insurgents firing a AA gun (anti-aircraft artillery) mounted on the rear of a pick-up truck. The insurgents attempt to hide the vehicle and then they flee and hide themselves. The Predator catches everything. The man operating the Predator calls in an A-10 Warthog airstrike, which strafes the tree-line where the insurgents were hiding. Then, the Predator itself takes out…

This video depicts the final moments of around 30 insurgents during the battle of Fallujah. In Fallujah, US troops saw some of the most intense urban combat of the Iraq War. During intense fighting, small groups of soldiers would be out-manned by the insurgents, but it usually didn’t matter. As seen here, it takes only 2 people and the technology of the American military to neutralize a roughly 20 person threat. The voice that says “take ‘em out” is that of a US soldier on the ground who called in airstrikes, and he directs the F-16 to the insurgents approaching…

Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]

The FA-22 Raptor is a symbol of Future Firepower. The Raptor encompasses advanced avionics, a very maneuverable airframe, and the ability to cruise at supersonic speeds without the use of an afterburner which increases it’s effective range. The F-22 can internally carry two 1,000 pound-class Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAM’s, along with a variety of air-to-air missiles. By carrying all of it’s munitions internally, the F-22 reduces it’s drag and adds to its stealth capabilities. The raptor can acquire targets and engage multiple targets simultaneously before the enemy aircraft…