by Spencer Ackerman | Oct 10, 2012 | Monitor
In an undated photograph, a BQM-147a Dragon drone shows damage after getting shot by a Navy laser weapon in China Lake, California. Photo: U.S. Navy One of the first tasks the Navy expects to assign its forthcoming arsenal of laser guns: shooting down drones that...
by David Axe | Oct 4, 2012 | Monitor
Don Harvel, near his home in Georgia. Photo: Kendrick Brinson/Wired Don Harvel thought he was cruising to a well-deserved retirement after 35 years flying cargo planes for the U.S. Air Force. Then in the spring of 2010 he was tapped to investigate the fatal crash of a...
by Spencer Ackerman | Oct 1, 2012 | Monitor
Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward speaks at a Center for Strategic & International Studies forum on Africa, July 2010. Photo: Flickr/CSIS What does Army Maj. Gen. William “Kip” Ward do for a living? The Army doesn’t seem to know. It knows...
by Spencer Ackerman | Sep 26, 2012 | Monitor
The 1997 episode of Pokemon that triggered hundreds of seizures — and stoked the dreams of Army technologists. Photo: via YouTube In 1998, a secret Army intelligence analysis suggested a new way to take out enemies: blast them with electromagnetic energy until...
by Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman | Sep 17, 2012 | Monitor
Demonstrators in Benghazi hang the ex-dictator Moammar Gadhafi in effigy, February 2011. The State Department later hired a private security firm, Blue Mountain, to help protect the U.S. consulate in the city — before it was attacked on Sept. 11. Photo:...